8 Main Street And Walling, Cushendun, Co.Antrim

No. 8 Main Street is a modest two-storey, two-bay white painted rendered house built between 1832 and 1857 (architect unknown), constructed at the same time as its immediate neighbours nos. 6 and 10 Main Street. It sits in the heart of the village of Cushendun, County Antrim, and is of local historic and social importance.

The house has a rectangular plan-form and faces north-east, with panoramic views of the coastline. The pitched slate roof has terracotta ridge tiles and two white painted rendered chimney-stacks positioned at mid-ridge, each with circular terracotta clay pots and stepped cornices. The eaves are stepped, with half-round cast-iron guttering discharging to circular-section downpipes. The external walls are white painted render set on a plinth painted in a contrasting colour. Windows are small-pane Georgian-style timber sliding sash with horns and exposed box frames painted in a contrasting colour, contributing to a cottage character in the overall façade design.

No. 8 sits between nos. 6 and 10, and is of slightly smaller scale than its neighbours. The three houses together form a row linked at each gable end by a low white painted rendered wall, with a vertically sheeted timber gate at each property giving access to the rear yards. The principal elevation faces north-east onto the junction of Main Road and Bay Road and is accessed via a tarmac footpath from the south-east side of the front entrance porch. This porch — confirmed by the Annual Revisions Town Plan (c. 1909–c. 1935) to be an original feature, unlike the porches on nos. 6 and 10 which were added in the late 20th century — has a rough-cast rendered finish and contains a vertically sheeted timber door with metal door furniture. It also has a narrow multi-pane Georgian-style window to the north-east elevation and a pitched slated roof over. The fenestration on the principal elevation is irregular: two 6/6 timber sliding sash windows sit to the right of the porch on the ground floor but are not aligned with the corresponding windows on the first floor above.

The south-east side elevation is of white painted smooth-rendered finish, topped by a rendered chimney-stack. A two-storey rear return is attached here, containing a small casement window at half-landing level. The south-east elevation faces onto the neighbouring property no. 6 and is accessed from a rendered gateway at the south-east corner of the building. The south-west rear elevation overlooks a modest concrete and grassed yard enclosed on the south-east side by a high timber fence and on the north-west side by the elevation of no. 10. The rear elevation is abutted by the two-storey rear return and has an irregular fenestration pattern consisting of two casement windows to the left of a vertically sheeted timber door on the ground floor, and a large casement window centred on the first floor. The north-west elevation is of white painted smooth-rendered finish with two casement windows to the right — one on the ground floor and a smaller one at first floor level — while the rear return elevation on this side is blank.

The house retains its original internal plan-form and some original internal fittings.

Materials throughout are as follows: natural slate roof; cast-iron painted rainwater goods; white rendered walling; timber sliding sash and small-pane Georgian-style casement windows.

The building is set immediately adjacent to The Square, a planned group of seven white painted rendered two-storey cottage-style houses arranged around three sides of an enclosed green. Together, nos. 6–10 Main Street and The Square form a cohesive architectural ensemble at the centre of Cushendun village, situated to the north of the Glendun River. The property lies within both a Conservation Area and a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Historically, the construction of nos. 6–10 Main Street is closely tied to the transformation of Cushendun in the early 19th century. Travel across mainland Europe was cut off by the Napoleonic Wars, making Ireland a popular destination for British tourists. This prompted the development of new routes along the Antrim Coast to connect Belfast with sites such as Dunluce Castle and the Giant's Causeway. The construction of the Coastal Road between 1832 and 1842 opened up the previously isolated Glens of Antrim, and villages including Cushendall and Cushendun were transformed from minor settlements into popular seaside resorts. A number of summer houses and bathing lodges were built along the coast by city-based professionals and merchants during this period, including the substantial residences of Glenmona Lodge and Glendun Lodge at Cushendun. Nos. 6–10 Main Street were built between 1832 and 1857, contemporary with the laying out of the Coastal Road and the initial development of the village.

Griffith's Valuation of 1859 records that no. 8 was originally valued at £2 and 5 shillings, and was leased by Richard Dobbs of Glendun Lodge to a Mr. Hugh Gribben. The occupants changed frequently over subsequent decades. The 1911 Census of Ireland recorded the house as occupied by Archibald O'Drain, a local shoemaker, living there with his wife Annie. The census building return described it as a second-class dwelling of three rooms with a dairy as its sole outbuilding. The O'Drain family continued to reside at the address until approximately 1940, when the house passed to a Ms. Mary A. Cottingham. Ownership of nos. 6–10 Main Street passed to the National Trust in 1954. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57), the value of no. 8 was increased to £4, and by the end of the Second General Revaluation the total rateable value stood at £7 and 15 shillings, with Cottingham still in residence. In 1972 the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society's guide to the Glens of Antrim described nos. 6–10 Main Street as "three older small two-storey white-washed houses of character." The buildings were listed in 1980, the same year they were included in the Cushendun Conservation Area, designated to protect and enhance the special qualities of the village. At the time of survey, no. 8 continued to be used as a private dwelling.