Coastguard Station, 130 Main Street, Portrush, BT56 8DA

Coastguard Station, 130 Main Street, Portrush

This substantial two-storey detached house was built in 1896 as a Coastguard station and commanding officer's dwelling, though it now serves as a private residence. It forms the southern end of a larger grouping comprising six two-storey terraced dwellings (1-6 Coastguard Cottages), original outhouses, and a later boathouse with associated store. The entire complex was originally finished in brick but is now rendered throughout. Set in urban surroundings north of Portrush town centre on a slight rise between Main Street to the south and Causeway View Lane to the north, the terrace runs north-south with the main station building fronting Main Street, while the cottages are accessed from Causeway View Lane to the east. Gardens belonging to the dwellings are detached plots to the west. Cottages 3-4 and 5-6 are paired with mirrored internal layouts and identical accommodation.

Number 130 is substantially larger than the adjoining cottages, originally fully detached but now connected by a later single-storey garage to the adjacent terrace. The building features a hipped roof finished with artificial slate and grey fireclay ridge tiles, with overhanging eaves displaying exposed rafter tails. Two rendered chimneystacks rise from the ridge—one corbelled on the right side, one plain replacement to the rear—with mixed clay pots. The rendered walls are finished with light roughcast; ground and first floor levels feature a continuous moulded stringcourse, though the ground floor section to the west front is now missing. A rubble-stone plinth bands the south and west sides; the north plinth is painted.

The west front façade is symmetrical with a central semi-circular-headed door opening surmounted by a radial uPVC fan-light, flanked by single openings on either side and three first-floor windows. Both west and south/street elevations have segmental-arched window openings with cut stone sills. The south side maintains symmetry with three first-floor and two ground-floor openings. North and east façades have flat-headed window openings informally arranged; the east elevation's left side breaks forward abutted by a single-storey flat-roofed extension with one window above, while the right side has one small ground-floor window and two first-floor windows. A secondary flat-headed entrance with flanking windows sits on the north elevation.

Modern alterations include replacement uPVC window frames, predominantly 6/6 with faux-astragals within double-glazed units. A uPVC soil stack sits to the left of the main entrance. To the rear, abutting the garage's north side, is a single-storey flat-roofed kitchen extension, with another later flat-roofed outbuilding abutting its north side.

The south wall merges with a stone boundary wall substantially raised from approximately 1.2 metres to 2.3 metres. The original lower section is squared rubble basalt; the upper section is rendered masonry with chamfered coping on the original course. A wide gateway with replacement timber paired gates flanks the house, set between square dressed stone gateposts and opening to a short flight of steps. The upper masonry section is built directly off the original coping but lacks coping at the gateposts' tops.