Ramoan House, 11 Novally Road, Ballycastle, County Antrim, BT54 6HB

Ramoan House is a substantial former rectory built in 1811, two storeys over a basement beneath a hipped slate roof. It stands in large, secluded grounds to the north of Novally Road, less than half a mile southwest of Ballycastle, in the townland of Glebe. The building was extended slightly around 1840–50, and a large entrance porch and conservatory was added to the front around 1910. It has an irregular plan overall, and the whole exterior is largely covered in unpainted roughcast.

The south-facing front elevation is now symmetrical. At its centre on the ground floor stands a large hipped-roofed timber entrance porch and conservatory, with glazing made up of six-over-six timber sash windows set between pilaster-like mullions, and a recent timber glazed door to the south face. To the left of the porch on the main façade is a window with a timber sash frame, similar in style to those of the porch but shorter. To the right of the porch is a similar window. The first floor has four evenly spaced shorter windows with three-over-six timber sash frames.

The long east elevation is symmetrical. At basement level there are five roughly square, unevenly spaced windows with modern timber frames. At first-floor level there are three large windows, each with tripartite timber sash frames that originally held Georgian panes but are now largely filled with plate glass. Above these, at the upper floor, are three similar but smaller windows that have retained their Georgian panes, arranged two-over-two, six-over-six, and two-over-two.

The north elevation consists of the north face of the main body of the building to the left and the north face of a north return to the right. At basement level on the main portion there is a doorway with a plain flat panel door to the right, a window with a modern timber frame to its left, and a small lean-to shed with a timber-sheeted door to its north face at the far left. At first-floor level to the right of centre there is a very small two-over-two timber sash window. Set into the intersection between the north return and the main body of the building is a relatively large single-storey lean-to section with a metal-framed window to its north face. The north face of the north return is lower on its right (west) side, this lower section having been added around the 1840s–50s. At first-floor level on this face there are two windows of differing size, both with timber sash frames glazed eight-over-eight with margin panes, a pattern typical of that period. The window to the left was almost certainly inserted when the extension to the return was added.

The west elevation has a complex, irregular appearance. To the far right is a section of the main body of the building with a six-over-six timber sash window at first-floor level. The ground floor of this section is largely obscured by the large lean-to, which has a flat panel timber door to the left and a metal-framed window to the right. To the right of this is the gable end of the lower section of the north return, which has a small modern timber-framed window at basement level, a larger eight-over-eight timber sash window with margin panes at an intermediate ground- and first-floor level, and a small segmental-headed opening at the gable, probably intended to house a water tank, fitted with a timber-sheeted door. At the far right is the larger south return, with a metal-framed window to the left at ground-floor level. Set between the two returns is a two-storey lean-to with a corrugated asbestos roof. Its lower (basement) floor has a single-pane timber-framed window; the upper level has a larger timber-framed window with leaded stained glass. Just above this lean-to, on the main body of the building, is a small six-pane timber-framed window.

On the south, inner face of the north return there is an eight-over-eight timber sash window with margin panes at the upper level, to the left. On the north, inner face of the south return there is a modern partly glazed door to the left at first-floor level, which opens onto a modern metal fire escape stair, with a four-over-two timber sash window to its right.

The roof is slated and carries three rendered ridge chimneystacks with corbelling. The large lean-to to the north side of the north return has a corrugated-iron roof. Rainwater goods throughout are cast iron.

To the south of the building is a tarmac forecourt, now largely moss-covered, with a curving drive. At the head of the drive is a gateway with wrought-iron gates and simple square roughcast rendered pillars capped with shallow stone pyramidal caps. Curving roughcast rendered walls extend from either side of the gateway. To the east of the building is a large lawn. To the west is another large lawn bounded to its north and west by a tall rubble-built wall. To the north and northwest is a large yard, partly grass-covered, with rubble-built single-storey gabled outbuildings to its west and north sides. The yard is enclosed to the northeast by a rubble-built wall with a broad vehicle gateway, rough stone-capped pillars, and a modern metal gate.

The Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1833 describe the building as "a very comfortable modern dwelling house…quite destitute of planting", built in 1811 at a cost of £550 defrayed by a grant from the Board of First Fruits. The valuation of 1835 records dimensions broadly similar to those of the building as it stands today, though the lower two-storey gable-ended section of the north return and the nearby single-storey lean-to were not yet present. Both appear in the 1859 valuation, which also records a single-storey gatehouse measuring 14 yards by 6. Ordnance Survey map evidence suggests this gatehouse may have stood directly opposite the gate, on the south side of Novally Road, near where the present modern rectory now stands. The extensions to the rectory may have been added in 1848, when the new parish church was under construction. The conservatory and porch to the front appear to be an Edwardian addition, though the exact date cannot be confirmed with certainty, as valuers record no major alterations to the building after 1859.

Ramoan House continued to serve as the rectory for Ramoan parish until 1980, when a new rectory was built on the south side of the road. The building was subsequently sold to the Save the Children Fund, who occupied it until 1983, when it was acquired by the Probation Board for Northern Ireland for use as a residential home.