9 Ann Street, Ballycastle, Co Antrim, BT54 6AA

9 Ann Street is an early nineteenth-century terrace building of three bays and three storeys, with a shop on the ground floor and living accommodation above, together with a basement. The exterior was renovated later in the same century. The building is of special interest for its style, proportion, ornamentation, surviving plan form, and historic internal fittings.

The ground floor features a three-panelled door (upper panel glazed) with a shallow rectangular fanlight. The door frame integrates with a shop window of two large plate glass panes divided by a moulded three-quarter round mullion. A very low cill is set above a narrow strip panel. Fluted pilasters frame either side of the door and window, with a name fascia bearing painted lettering above. To the right is another window, a single plate glass pane, occupying what was originally a gateway. This window is set within a segmental arch with plaster voussoirs and quoins on either side, with a low cill matching the main window. The first floor contains three double-hung sliding sash windows, each with two panes and thin cills sitting almost on the name fascia cornice, which continues over the former gateway. The second floor has three similar windows aligned directly above those below. The walls are smooth rendered and painted with plaster painted quoins. A meagre eaves overhang features a fascia board and soffit; a half-round metal gutter with square downpipe sits between the ground floor windows, connected by a short swanneck to the trunk head, which has prominent fixing lugs. The roof is natural slated with gable chimneysstacks and a ridge chimney in line with the former gateway. A simple ridge tile projects approximately one metre above the adjacent building.

The rear elevation rises four storeys over three bays, with a projecting lean-to and flat-roofed returns. The main street front block has a pitched roof of Bangor blue slates in regular courses with red ridge tiles, a PVC gutter and downpipe, and rendered walls with wet dash finish. Third storey windows are rectangular timber sliding sash with six panes over six and horns; second storey windows are rectangular timber fixed lights with top-hung vents. The lean-to roofed return on the right-hand side of the second floor is slated to match the main block with PVC rainwater goods; it contains one window matching those of the second floor. The flat-roofed return covering the two left-hand bays, two storeys high, has a corrugated iron roof, smooth rendered walls with wet dash, PVC rainwater goods, and a rectangular timber door with modern glazing leading to external steps down to the yard. The rear boundary wall is rendered and wet dashed, containing a corrugated iron gate. The ground floor of the flat-roofed return contains a large rectangular doorway.

The interior evidence indicates an early nineteenth-century or late eighteenth-century building remodelled externally later in the nineteenth century. The size and quality of finishes to the upper floors suggest an owner of considerable means.

The building stands on the main street of Ballycastle within a terrace of shops and houses, located within the town's conservation area.

Ann Street took its name from Ann McAllister of Kinbane, wife of one of the Boyds, in 1810. Contemporary records describe the principal streets of Ballycastle as comprising two and three-storey houses which, though comfortable and cleanly, were not particularly neat or modern in appearance. The building originally featured a naive Ionic portico, which was removed during improvements carried out in the 1990s with a Northern Ireland Housing Executive grant, primarily to the shop accommodation. The current shopfront replicates the character of others in the conservation area.