10 Ann Street, Ballycastle, Co Antrim, BT54 6AD

10 Ann Street, Ballycastle

A large, plain rendered three-storey terrace shop with apartment, positioned on the northwest side of Ann Street within Ballycastle town centre. The building appears to have assumed its present form in 1871–72, possibly involving the raising of the roof and remodelling of an earlier, smaller two to one-and-a-half storey property. Although the front façade maintains a traditional appearance, much of the property, including the shopfront, has undergone alteration.

The asymmetrical front elevation faces roughly southeast. On the ground floor, a simple traditional shopfront (possibly a recent replacement) occupies the centre and left, comprising a panelled and glazed shop door with a large two-pane timber window to the left, both framed by simple pilasters. To the right of the shop doorway is another doorway leading to the apartment, fitted with a panelled timber door, plain rectangular fanlight, and simple pilaster jambs. This ensemble is topped with a painted timber signboard bearing a projecting cornice. To the far right stands a carriage gateway with a shallow segmental arch head and tongue-and-groove timber door. The first floor contains three off-centre, unevenly spaced plain sash windows, with three slightly smaller versions similarly positioned on the second floor. The front façade is finished in painted lined render with bevelled in-out quoins.

The rear elevation presents a more complex arrangement. To the left of the ground floor is the back end of the carriage gateway. Immediately to the right is a relatively small, single-storey flat-roofed extension with blank exposed faces. A metal staircase rises against its northwest face, providing access to a glazed door on the upper level of the northeast face of an adjoining two-storey gabled return. To the northwest, the return abuts a long one-and-a-half storey gabled outbuilding. The first floor of the main building rear contains three unevenly spaced windows of various sizes, all with modern frames; the second floor has two widely spaced windows also of differing size and modern frames. The rear is finished in painted roughcast. The gabled roof is slated to the front, while the rear appears covered in artificial slate. The gabled roof of the return is also apparently in artificial slate, though the outbuilding is slated. Rendered chimney stacks flank each end of the main roof. The rainwater goods to the front comprise a recent square downspout and what appears to be extruded aluminium guttering; those to the rear are PVC.

Historical records indicate that a lower one-and-a-half to two-storey dwelling occupied this site earlier. The 1834 valuation records it as the home of Robert Mullan, and the 1859 valuation identifies it as belonging to Patrick Cassley. The latter valuation describes the property as containing "shop and garret over, two small rooms below and two over", noting that the storeys were low and the building had an "inferior finish". The property remained substantially unchanged until 1872, when the lease was acquired by John McMichael and the rateable value increased from £7–10–0 to £15, indicating a significant enlargement. As subsequent valuations record no material changes, the building evidently assumed its present three-storey form in 1871–72. Whether the new structure incorporated any fabric from the older building is uncertain, though the asymmetrical façade may be significant. The McMichael family sublet the property to John Black in 1874, followed by Greg Morrison (1884–86), Mary Magill (1886–circa 1920), and thereafter apparently reassumed the tenancy themselves by 1921. The family appears to have retained the lease—and later possibly the freehold—until at least 1957. The current shopfront differs from that recorded by the Environment and Heritage Service in 1970, although it represents a good replication of a traditional type.

The building lies within a conservation area.