68 Castle Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Plain three storey terrace shop -originally a house- of possible mid to later 18th century construction, now integrated with the neighbouring building to the west. The property is set on the N side of Castle Street, close to Ballycastle town centre.

The asymmetrical front elevation faces S. To the far left on the ground floor is a panelled door. To right of this is another doorway, half-panelled half-glazed, whilst to right again is a large single-light shop window with roller shutter over. Recent laminated signboard over doorways. To the first floor are three unevenly-spaced windows with plain sash frames, to the second floor are three similar but much shorter windows. The front elevation is finished in plain painted render.

The rear elevation could only be seen from a distance. The ground floor is completely covered by a lean-to with what appears to be a rendered façade and corrugated asbestos roof. The window openings to the first floor have all been blocked up, with those to the uppermost level retaining remains of Georgian-paned sash frames. The rear elevation is finished in unpainted roughcast.

The gabled roof is slated, rendered chimney stack to W. The rw goods to front appear to be wholly metal, those to rear may be PVC but as these could only be seen from a distance, it is difficult to tell.

Historical information

The first valuation of December 1834* records an old (grade ‘1C+’) house of similar dimensions to the present on this site, then occupied by ‘C & R McCormick’. As the later valuations do not record any major changes to the property (excluding internal changes) we can assume that the 1834 house is that we see today. The building is may have one of the 9 three storey houses mentioned in the OS Memoirs of 1835 -though this may refer to buildings with three full-height floors-, and like many of the properties within Castle Street may date from c.1740-70, when the town assumed much of its present form under improving landlord Hugh Boyd.

By 1859 the property ‘whose situation was not so good’ was occupied by a Mary Woodside and included a ‘shop and 2 small rooms below, 4 small rooms over and 2 garrets’. Woodside, (listed as a ‘straw and bonnet maker’ in Slaters’s 1856 Directory), remained in residence until 1890, when he was succeeded by Margaret Woodside (?a daughter ?niece) who lived there until the 1920s. The next resident appears to have been a John Henry, then Alexander Stewart (1948-56) and Daniel Duncan (1956 ?c.1970s). The property became integrated with its neighbour to the west side c.1980.

[*Note on primary sources- Though Ballycastle has its full compliment of valuation books dating back to 1834, the earliest extant valuation plan of the town (indeed the earliest large scale plan) is that dating from 1898. This means that though the first and second valuations (of 1834 and 1859 respectively) present the usual detailed accounts of properties throughout the town, bereft of their contemporary plans it is almost impossible to discover exactly to which buildings the valuers are referring. The writer has circumvented this problem however by adopting the somewhat involved method of reading the records backwards- i.e. taking the more recent (mid 20th century) valuations and tracing each building back from these, using the 1898 map as a marker along the way.]

References- Primary sources
1 ‘Pigot & Co’s City of Dublin and Hibernian Commercial Directory (Manchester 1824)
2 OS Memoirs, Parish of Ramoan, 1831-39, reprinted in ‘Ordnance Survey memoirs of Ireland…’ ed Angelique Day, Patrick McWilliams and Noirin Dobson (Belfast, QUB, 1994), p.92 etc
3 PRONI OS/6/1/8/1 OS map, Co Antrim, sh 8, 1832
4 PRONI VAL/1B/135 First valuation, Ramoan parish, 1834
5 Samuel Lewis, ‘Topographical history of Ireland’ (London, 1837)
6 ‘Slater’s National Commercial Directory of Ireland (Manchester, 1846)
7 ‘Slater’s National Commercial Directory of Ireland (Manchester, 1856)
8 PRONI OS/6/1/8/2 OS map, Co Antrim, sh 8, 1856
9 PRONI VAL/2B/1/28c Second valuation, Ramoan parish, 1859
10 PRONI VAL/12B/2/3a-g Annual valuation revision books, Ballycastle ED, 1864-1921
11 ‘Slater’s Royal National Commercial Directory of Ireland (Manchester, 1870)
12 PRONI VAL/12E/8/1/1-3 Valuation plan of Ballycastle, 1898-c.1935
13 PRONI VAL/12E/8/2/1 Valuation plan of Ballycastle, c.1905
14 PRONI VAL/12B/2/5a-c Annual valuation revision books, Ballycastle UD, 1921-31
15 PRONI VAL/3G/6/1/1-3 Valuation plan of Ballycastle, 1934-50
16 PRONI VAL/3B/1/5 First general revaluation of Northern Ireland, Ballycastle UD, 1935
17 PRONI VAL/3C/1/6 First general revaluation of Northern Ireland, 1936-57
18 Information supplied by the owner (May 2003)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Plain three storey terrace shop -originally a house- of possible mid to later 18th century construction, now integrated with the neighbouring building to the west. A much altered property but still of value as part of the streetscape.