63-65 Castle Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Two-storey terrace shop with apartment over, originally a house built c.1740s, but partly rebuilt with roof raised slightly in 1885 and present shop front and very large rear extension added in the 1990s. The property is set on the south side of Castle Street, just to the west of Ballycastle town centre.

The asymmetrical front elevation faces N. To the ground floor there is a modern shop front consisting of a recessed doorway with partly glazed timber door. To the left is a large window with three-light timber frame, with an identical window to the right. The shop front is encased with recent fluted timber ‘pilasters’ which ‘support’ a [?]timber signboard with raised lettering. To the right of the shop front there is a doorway (belonging to the apartment), with door as before. To the first floor there are three uniform evenly-spaced windows with moulded surrounds and horned timber sash windows with plate glass glazing. There is a projecting signboard between the first and second windows, with a projecting street lamp between the second and third windows.

To the rear there is a very large single-storey extension which appears to cover all of the ground floor of the rear façade of the main (original section). The first floor level of this section could not be seen (due to the presence of the extension).

The gabled roof of the main section is slated and there is at least one Velux window to the rear. There is a rendered (ridge) chimneystack to the E end. Cast-iron and PVCu rainwater goods.

Historical information

An old, (possibly mid 18th century), dwelling measuring 32ft x 23½ x 16½ is recorded on this site in the valuation of January 1835*, then in the hands of a Denis [?]McElherin and a Mrs Blair. The presence of two occupants suggests that the building was split into two properties at this stage, although the fact that the valuers refer to a single dwelling, indicates it was probably not built as such.

By 1859 there were ‘officially’ two dwellings, with both containing a ‘shop and kitchen below, two rooms over and garrets’, but that to the east (later No.65) possessing an ‘inferior finish’. To the rear there were three smaller dwellings, one two-storey, the others single-storey. A James McMichael was both leaseholder and tenant of the house to the east at this stage, holding the leases of the smaller dwellings to the rear also, the two-storey house to the rear, (which contained a single room of 12ft x 12 to each floor), occupied by a Robert Chambers, with a Thomas Cook and an Anne McCullagh renting the other two 18ft x 12 buildings. A Margaret McKay lived in the house to the west (later No.63), with a George Daly holding the lease.

In 1885, after No.63 had passed through the hands of six other tenants, the valuers report that the house had its front ‘rebuilt’ and roof of both it and No.65 raised 2½ft. The following year the houses to the rear are recorded as ‘in ruins’.

The McMichael family continued to live in No.65 post 1885, Jane McMichael remaining there until c.1922, whilst a family named McAuley were resident in No.63 from 1887 until c.1930. In 1935 an Alexander McLean is recorded as renting both properties from a John Mitchell, with a William Jameson in residence between 1938 and 1941, and an Alexander Frayne from 1942 to 1949. In the latter year an Anthony P. Kelly became leaseholder and tenant, remaining there until at least 1972.

The present owner, who acquired the building in 1998, states that the property has contained a chemist’s shop since the 1930s, and that the first floor apartment, (which takes in the upper floors of both former houses), was created c.1980. The large rear extension appears to have been added in the mid to later 1990s.

[*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 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 Taylor, George, and Skinner, Andrew, ‘Taylor and Skinner’s Maps of the Roads of Ireland, surveyed 1777’ (Dublin, 1778), Map 20 etc.
2 Linen Hall Library, Belfast, ‘A Map of County Antrim…by J. Lendrick’ (1780)
3 ‘Pigot & Co’s City of Dublin and Hibernian Commercial Directory (Manchester 1824)
4 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
5 PRONI OS/6/1/8/1 OS map, Co Antrim, sheet 8 (1832)
6 PRONI VAL/1B/135 First valuation, Ramoan parish (1834)
7 Lewis, Samuel, ‘Topographical history of Ireland’ (London, 1837)
8 ‘Slater’s National Commercial Directory of Ireland (Manchester, 1846)
9 ‘Slater’s National Commercial Directory of Ireland (Manchester, 1856)
10 PRONI OS/6/1/8/2 OS map, Co Antrim, sheet 8 (1856)
11 PRONI VAL/2B/1/28c Second valuation, Ramoan parish (1859)
12 PRONI VAL/12B/2/3a Annual valuation revision book, Ballycastle ED (1862-64)
13 PRONI VAL/12B/2/3b Annual valuation revision book, Ballycastle ED (1865-76)
14 Slater’s Royal National Commercial Directory of Ireland (Manchester, 1870)
15 PRONI VAL/12B/2/3c Annual valuation revision book, Ballycastle ED (1876-84)
16 PRONI VAL/12B/2/3d Annual valuation revision book, Ballycastle ED (1884-93)
17 PRONI VAL/12B/2/3e Annual valuation revision book, Ballycastle ED (1892/3-98)
18 Bassett, George Henry, ‘The Book of County Antrim’ (Dublin, 1888), pp.92-102
19 PRONI VAL/12B/2/3f Annual valuation revision book, Ballycastle ED (1898-1907)
20 PRONI VAL/12E/8/1/1-3 Valuation plans of Ballycastle (1898-c.1935)
21 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory’ (Belfast, 1905)
22 PRONI VAL/12E/8/2/1 Valuation plan of Ballycastle, c.1905
23 PRONI VAL/12B/2/3g Annual valuation revision book, Ballycastle ED (1908-21)
24 PRONI VAL/12B/2/5a Annual valuation revision book, Ballycastle UD North and South Wards (1921-27)
25 PRONI VAL/12B/2/5b Annual valuation revision book, Ballycastle UD North Ward (1927-30)
26 PRONI VAL/12B/2/5c Annual valuation revision book, Ballycastle UD South Ward (1927-30)
27 PRONI VAL/3G/6/1/1-3 Valuation plan of Ballycastle, 1934-50
38 PRONI VAL/3B/1/5 First general revaluation of Northern Ireland, Ballycastle UD, 1935
39 PRONI VAL/3C/1/6 First general revaluation of Northern Ireland, 1936-57
30 PRONI VAL/4B/1/12 Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland, Ballycastle UD (1956-72)

Secondary sources
1 Brett, C.E.B., ‘Historic Buildings…The Glens of Antrim’ (Belfast, 1971), p.47
2 Information supplied by the owner (September 2004)

Other
references
1 EHS HB05/15/018 First Survey report (10 October 1972)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Two-storey shop with apartment over, originally a house (two houses) built c.1740s, but partly rebuilt with roof raised slightly in 1885 and present shop front and very large rear extension added in the 1990s. The building has little architectural character.