49 Castle Street, Ballycastle, County Antrim, BT54 6AR

49 Castle Street is a substantial, plain, three-storey terraced house built in 1748, situated on the south side of Castle Street to the west of Ballycastle town centre. It forms part of a group of properties along Castle Street that appear largely to have been developed during the 1740s. The building has suffered some devaluation in recent years through the introduction of modern window frames and other unsympathetic detailing.

The asymmetrical north-facing front elevation is finished in painted plain render. To the right on the ground floor is the main entrance, comprising a panelled timber door with a plain rectangular fanlight above. To the left is a large picture window with modern plate glass glazing; a recess directly beneath this window suggests it originally functioned as a shopfront. At first-floor level there are three evenly spaced, uniform windows with uPVC frames, and three similar but shorter windows to the second floor.

To the rear, the elevation is covered entirely in dry dash render. At ground-floor level — which sits considerably higher than the actual ground on this side of the building — there is a large window with a modern timber frame. Both the first and second floors each have a similar window to the right. To the left on the first floor is a much smaller two-pane timber-framed window, while to the left on the second floor is a taller window of Georgian proportions, fitted with a horned timber sash frame and plate glass glazing. Set at an intermediate level, likely corresponding to a half-landing, and positioned at the very left-hand edge of the rear façade within an angled recess, is a further window with a horned timber sash frame and four panes over four. The gabled roof of the main building is covered in artificial tiles. There is a large rendered ridge chimneystack at the east end of this roof, and a small skylight to the rear. Cast-iron rainwater goods are present throughout.

To the left-hand side of the rear elevation there is a long single-storey return, which appears to have been built in two sections. The northern section is slightly broader and has a flat roof covered in felt, with a very tall rendered chimneystack that is also attached to the wall of the neighbouring property to the west. The narrower southern section has a single-pitched slated roof. On the east face of the southern section of the return there are two windows with timber sash frames, each with two panes over two and patterned glazing. Between these windows is an armorial moulded stone panel bearing the inscription: "This house was built by John Boyd Surgeon 1748." According to the owner, this panel was originally positioned on the main rear façade of the house and was relocated to the return when work was carried out to the rear in more recent years. On the west face of the northern section of the return there is a doorway with a timber sheeted door, flanked on either side by windows matching those described above but with clear glazing.

Attached to the south end of the return is a single-storey shed with corrugated-iron walls and a gabled corrugated-iron roof. To the south of this shed, set at a right angle to it, stands a much older two-storey gabled outbuilding with roughcast-covered walls, a carriage archway, and a gabled roof covered in corrugated asbestos.

The house was built by John Boyd, a surgeon, in 1748, as recorded on the moulded stone panel. The accuracy of this date is supported by the character of the internal detailing — notably the staircase — by the broader pattern of development along Castle Street in the 1740s, and by the observations of valuers in 1835 who regarded the building as relatively old at that time. A note by C.E.B. Brett, writing in 1971, records what appears to have been an identically worded inscription on the neighbouring property to the east (No. 51), suggesting that Boyd may have built both properties; however, no such inscription survives at No. 51 today.

By 1835, when the first valuation survey was carried out, the house was occupied by a later Dr Boyd — most likely a descendant of the original builder, and probably the John Boyd listed as a surgeon and apothecary in Castle Street in Pigot's 1824 Directory. The valuers recorded the property at that time as a dwelling and shop measuring 24 feet by 27 by 24½ feet, with an addition of 15 by 12 by 6 feet, stables and byre of 20½ by 22½ by 12 feet, and a store of 14 by 13½ by 9 feet. By 1859, the second valuation survey found the house leased from the Boyd estate by a John McConaghy, probably the grocer of that name listed in Slater's 1856 Directory. By this stage two additional single-storey outbuildings had appeared to the rear, probably to the south of the present two-storey outbuilding, and the house was described as containing a shop and room and kitchen off, two rooms over and two above with garrets, all in tolerably good internal repair.

In 1867 the lease was acquired by Margaret Ewing, recorded by Bassett in 1888 as a grocer and draper, who was succeeded by Jane Ewing in 1901. After 1903, Jane Ewing let the property to a succession of tenants: Margaret Camac from 1903 to 1905, John Graham from 1905 to 1906, and thereafter William Curry, whose family remained in occupation until 1940, when the property was acquired by the present owner's father.