A settlement development limit is designated as identified on Map No. 103a - Straw.

A Local Landscape Policy Area is designated as identified on Map No. 103a - Straw, Map No. 1 - Countryside and Map No. 103b – Local Landscape Policy Areas.

Those features or combination of features that contribute to the environmental quality, integrity or character of this area are listed below:

• St Columbkille’s (RC) Church is a locally significant building and a local landmark within the settlement. Attractive views of the church are seen across the countryside and local fields, on the southern approach, where the hill-slopes also form a backdrop to the settlement;
   

• Several river and stream corridors cross the area.  Trees and scrub along these watercourses make them wildlife corridors, and together with some strong hedgerows, and a network of farm lanes, characterise a traditional rural landscape;
   

• A series of flax, corn and sawmills, millraces and ponds were powered by water taken from the White Water to the Moyola River. These are a good example of the extent to which a small area with a dispersed rural community could support several industries, in the past. The mill buildings, some of them still in use, reflect a historic settlement pattern that is often much less obvious elsewhere;
   

• To the north-west of the settlement a rath, an historic monument, occupies a prominent site on a river cliff on the northern bank of the River Moyola.