31 Main Street, Bushmills, Co. Antrim, BT57 8QA

Nos 31-33 Main Street, Bushmills

Numbers 31 and 33 Main Street were a pair of two-storey terraced houses built between 1834 and 1855 on the west side of Main Street. They were among the last buildings constructed along this stretch during the early 19th century rebuilding of Bushmills, carried out by the MacNaghten family of Bushmills House following their acquisition of the estate in 1787.

The buildings did not appear on the Townland Valuation Town Plan or contemporary valuations of around 1834-35, but were recorded on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1855. They were both three-bay structures, with No. 31 distinguishing itself by possessing a coach arch. According to Griffith's Valuation of 1859, No. 31 was valued at £6 and 10 shillings and occupied by Mary Gault, whilst No. 33 was valued at £5 and 10 shillings and inhabited by Barbara Huey, both properties being leased by Mr. John Kilpatrick.

Around 1896, the two separate buildings were combined into a single dwelling and revalued at £10, occupied by James Sinclair, a local national schoolteacher. The 1911 Census of Ireland described it as a first-class dwelling containing ten rooms with a turf-house and potato-house as outbuildings. The contemporary Ordnance Survey Town Plan of 1902 showed two small outbuildings to the rear. The Sinclair family remained in occupation until around 1960. Ownership then passed to Mr. Daniel Cochrane, who subdivided the property back into its original two-dwelling layout and leased it to new tenants. By the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956-72), each property was valued at £17 and 10 shillings.

A 1972 survey card described the pair as rendered houses with modern fenestration, elliptical arched coach entrance, maintained eaves and ridge levels, slated roof, and rendered chimneys. The buildings were individually listed in 1980 and subsequently included in the Bushmills Conservation Area, designated in 1992. Planning permission for demolition and residential redevelopment was granted in March 2001, and the buildings were completely demolished around that date. The site remained under construction work as an incomplete development.