Open Day glimpse into former cop shop

Former station will be open to the public on Saturday.

The former PSNI station is now owned by Dungiven Presbyterian Church, as revealed by the ‘Journal’ last year.

Ian Buchanan, of the Church’s Property Committee, said they bought the station for £175,000.

Now, the public has a chance to see inside the station at an open day on Saturday.

Mr Buchanan said the event is open to everyone.

“We encourage everyone to come along and have a look around,” he told the ‘Journal’.

Mr Buchanan told the ‘Journal’ they have no real plans for the building itself at the moment.

“The building is a very sound, solid building, and it would cost a lot to demolish,” he told the ‘Journal’.

“We may be able to use it for the Church, we don’t know yet. Nothing has been discussed yet. We just want to take some time and evaluate what we have. We don’t need it to be a fortress site and we want to normalise it as much as we can and make it just another building on Main Street in Dungiven. Hopefully, in the summer, we can start to do that.”

The fundraising open day, with refreshments, takes place on Saturday from 11am to 3pm.

The 6,920 sq ft (643 sq m) site is situated along Main Street.

The former Limavady Borough Council had previously expressed an interest in the station as part of plans for a multi-million pound community and sports project for Dungiven, but they decided against pursuing it.

The 0.34 hectare site was acquired by police in 1926 and, according to PSNI figures, cost £74,645 to run each year. with £50,000 going towards rates and the rest for electricity and maintenance.