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

29 Main Street, Bushmills, is a two-storey, three-bay painted rendered late-Georgian house, constructed immediately prior to 1832 as part of the early 19th-century reconstruction of the village. It sits on the west side of Main Street at the northern end of Bushmills, with the Bush River to the west, and is adjoined to the north-west by the neighbouring No. 27 Main Street. The building was delisted in June 2017 on the grounds that it no longer retains sufficient architectural or historic interest to be considered special.

The house has a rectangular plan with a modern single-storey flat-roof extension to the rear, enclosed by a high curved rendered wall with a timber gate and a metal fence to the left side. The roof is covered in fibre cement (replacing original slate) with black clay ridge tiles and two unpainted rendered chimneystacks centred on the ridge, fitted with both circular terracotta and octagonal buff clay pots. External walls are painted render throughout, and rainwater goods are uPVC.

The principal elevation faces north-east and is accessed via a paved footpath from Main Street. At ground floor it is four bays wide, narrowing to three bays at first floor, with the two right-hand bays on the upper storey aligned with the corresponding bays below. Ground floor windows are timber sliding sashes on painted sills; first floor windows are timber casements, also on painted sills. The front door is a replacement timber four-panel door with a half-moon glazed panel above and a plain glazed transom light over, and is not centred on the elevation. The south-east elevation is blank, with re-rendered walling and an unpainted rendered chimneystack above. The south-west rear elevation is partly abutted at ground floor by the single-storey flat-roof extension, which has timber casement windows and a doorway on its south-east side leading into the main house; the main rear wall to the right of the extension has a timber casement window at ground floor and three timber casement windows at first floor, all on painted sills. The north-west elevation is party to No. 27 Main Street.

Internally, little historic detailing or fabric survives.

The house was built during the extensive rebuilding of Bushmills carried out in the 1820s by the MacNaghten family of Bushmills House, who had acquired the estate in 1787. The building appeared on both the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1832 and the Townland Valuation Town Plan of around 1834. The Townland Valuation of 1835 described it as a Class 1A building — that is, new or nearly new and slated — measuring 30 feet by 28 feet and standing 20 feet in height, initially occupied by a Mr Robert Dunlop and valued at £9 10 shillings.

By the time of Griffith's Valuation in 1859, the house had risen in value to £11 10 shillings and was leased by the MacNaghten family to Dr Alexander S. Warke, a local surgeon who also operated the Dispensary at the adjoining No. 27 Main Street. In the 1870s the house was occupied by a Mr Samuel Doherty, whose family remained there until around 1929. The 1901 Census records Samuel Doherty as a manufacturer of fishing tackle, living with his brother John; the census building return described the property as a first-class dwelling and shop with nine inhabited rooms and a turf house as its sole outbuilding. The Ordnance Survey Town Plan of 1902 showed the house as a simple square-shaped building without extensions or significant outbuildings.

Around 1929, the Doherty family were succeeded by William John Sinclair, a local schoolmaster, who remained until his death in 1939, after which his widow Elizabeth continued in residence. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57), the total rateable value rose to £13, and a Mr Daniel Cochrane is recorded as the occupier in 1948, leasing from the MacNaghten estate. By the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72), the value had risen further to £15 10 shillings.

The 1972 Ulster Architectural Heritage Society guide to North Antrim described the buildings along Main Street in Bushmills in general terms as forming "a well-scaled street," noting that "many good doorways and shopfronts remain" but that "no building apart from the former Courthouse is worthy of individual mention" and that "the unity of the street frontages must be maintained." No. 29 was listed in 1980 and was subsequently included in the Bushmills Conservation Area, designated in 1992 to preserve the built heritage of a village that possesses the highest number of listed buildings in the north-east of Northern Ireland. It was delisted in June 2017, owing to the loss of original external and internal fabric: the front facade has been significantly altered with replacement top-hung casement windows at first floor, a replacement front door, and an artificial slate roof covering, leaving the exterior with little historic detailing or character, and the interior similarly depleted.