'The Antrim Arms Hotel', 75 Castle Street, Ballycastle, County Antrim, BT54 6AS

The Antrim Arms Hotel is a large three-storey hotel with long three-storey and two-storey rear extensions, built around 1760, with the returns added during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It stands on a slope at the east end of Castle Street, at its junction with Fairhill Street, in Ballycastle town centre. It is a rare surviving example of a mid-18th century inn or hotel that has been relatively well preserved, at least externally, and sits within a conservation area.

FRONT ELEVATION

The north-facing front elevation is made up of two distinct sections: a large, symmetrical five-window-wide portion that forms the bulk of the facade, and a single-window-wide portion to the west that was a separate property for much of the 19th century.

At the centre of the ground floor of the larger section is the main entrance, consisting of a panelled timber double door with a semicircular fanlight above it, fitted with spoke-pattern timber tracery. The doorway is framed by moulded pilasters, which were probably originally intended to support a moulded tympanum. However, the doorway is now set beneath a flat-roofed portico, whose roof cuts across the top of the fanlight and across what would have been the tympanum zone. The portico roof has an oversailing cornice, and the name "Antrim Arms" is spelled out in raised lettering across its frieze. The roof is supported on two fluted Composite columns.

To the left of the doorway are two rectangular windows with horned timber sash frames, broad boxes, plate glass glazing, and cills set almost flush with the wall surface. There are two identical windows to the right of the door, five more at first-floor level, and five shorter windows at second-floor level. The single-window-wide western section has windows at each floor that are similar to those of the main section but broader. The entire front elevation is finished in painted lined render with moulded in-and-out quoins.

EAST ELEVATION

The long east elevation comprises the gable end of the main front section of the building on the right, and the east face of the long three-storey eastern return. The gable has a partly exposed basement level with a recessed window to the right and a much smaller window, similarly framed, also to the right. At first-floor level there are two windows similar to those on the front. Above, there are two similar but slightly narrower windows, and two more windows of differing size. At attic level there is a small rectangular window with a timber sash frame (three panes over three), set within a pointed arch recess. The gable is finished to match the front facade and is topped with a large rendered chimneystack.

Because of the slope of Fairhill Street, the ground floor of the eastern return's east face is actually level with the basement of the main front section, with its first floor corresponding to the ground floor of the main section, and so on. At ground-floor level, on the right-hand side, there are three windows of differing sizes: two with relatively recent-looking timber frames and one with a metal frame. To their left is a large segmental-headed vehicle entrance with timber-sheeted double doors. At first-floor level, there are eight evenly spaced uniform windows with modern multi-pane timber frames. At second-floor level, there are seven uniform windows: six with horned timber sash frames (the four to the right having two panes over two, with plate glass glazing to those on the left), and one with a modern timber frame.

WEST ELEVATION

The west elevation is largely hidden by the neighbouring property. Only a small section of the west face of the two-storey western return is exposed, and it has no openings.

REAR ELEVATION

The south-facing rear elevation consists of the two-storey western return on the left, the three-storey eastern return on the right, a low two-storey flat-roofed section set between them, and the second-floor level of the rear of the main building visible behind. The south gable of the western return has a large first-floor window with a recent bowed timber frame. The south gable of the eastern return has two similar bowed windows at first-floor level and a much smaller window at second-floor level with a modern timber frame. In the gap between the two returns sits the low two-storey flat-roofed projection, with a fire escape stair descending from its roof against the inner west face of the eastern return. The south face of this flat-roofed section has a large doorway with a modern mainly glazed double door. The ground floor appears to project slightly beyond the first-floor line but does not appear to have any openings.

The exposed second-floor level of the rear of the main building could not be seen in its entirety. To the far left there appears to be a large projecting gabled half-dormer, with a smaller flush gabled half-dormer to its right. The smaller half-dormer has a window similar to those on the front elevation; the larger dormer could not be observed clearly. Further right there is a shallow projecting hip-roofed section with a window with a single-pane timber frame. The rear elevation is finished in painted render.

INNER FACES OF THE RETURNS

Only the very left-hand end of the inner face of the western return is visible, and it does not appear to have any openings. The inner west face of the eastern return is fully exposed at second-floor level, with only the far right-hand end of the lower floors visible. There appear to be no openings at ground-floor level, a single window at first-floor level, and at least six openings at second-floor level. Two of these six openings, on the left, appear to be doorways that open onto the flat roof of the section between the returns. The inner faces are finished in painted render.

ROOFS AND RAINWATER GOODS

The gabled roof of the main section is slated, with a small skylight to the rear. There are two ridge chimneystacks: one at the east gable (described above) and one to the west of centre, positioned in line with the division between the two formerly separate properties that now make up the main section. The gabled roof of the western return appears to be covered in fibre cement slates, at least on its eastern side; the covering of the eastern return's roof could not be seen. The rainwater goods appear to be largely, if not wholly, cast iron.

REAR YARD

To the rear of the building there is a large yard enclosed from Fairhill Street to the east and Mill Street to the south by a high wall. This wall appears to have been originally constructed entirely in rubble masonry, but large sections on the east side have been patched in concrete brick and red brick. An original gateway on the south side has also been blocked up in concrete brick. The south-east corner of the wall is built in semi-coursed red sandstone, which is thought to have been salvaged from elsewhere.

HISTORY

The question of the building's exact date of construction has been debated. The prolific traveller and former Archdeacon of Dublin, Dr Richard Pococke, who visited Ballycastle in 1752, refers to a "very good inn" built by the town's then landlord Hugh Boyd. Local historian Hugh Alexander Boyd, writing in a 1967 newspaper article, suggested that this inn stood on the site of the present hotel and that the current building replaced it in 1767, when Alexander Boyd leased the site to a local surgeon named Robert McCarroll. C.E.B. Brett repeated this account in his Buildings of County Antrim, but Cathal Dallat, writing in 1989, put the date at 1754. While there is no conclusive evidence for either date, the fact that much of Castle Street was largely developed in the 1740s and 1750s means the earlier date is not unreasonable.

In the first valuation of 1835, two separate properties were recorded on this site, corresponding to the division still visible in the asymmetrical fenestration of the front facade. The larger property to the east was then in the hands of a Charles McGildowny Esq, and was recorded as measuring 39½ feet by 28 feet by 25 feet, with a rear addition of 10 by 7½ by 25 feet, cellars used as dwellings measuring 39½ by 28 by 7½ feet, and offices of 23 by 19½ by 11½ feet. The smaller building to the west was occupied by an Alexander McGee and measured 15 by 28 by 25 feet, with its own rear addition of 8 by 9 by 23½ feet, cellars described as half store and half dwelling measuring 11½ by 20½ by 11½ feet, and a stable of 12 by 20½ by 11½ feet. The valuers graded both buildings "1B+", suggesting both were of considerable age by that point — certainly over thirty years old and most probably 18th century in date. The dimensions in subsequent valuations remained broadly similar, indicating that no major structural changes were made until later in the century.

The Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1831 describe Ballycastle as having only one inn, which was "dirty in the extreme." This is at odds with Pigot's Directory of seven years earlier, which lists two inns and hotels in the town: one in Main Street (that is, Castle Street), run by a Hugh O'Hall — undoubtedly the Antrim Arms — and another in Church Street (The Diamond), run by a Matthew Fullerton, probably the present Boyd Arms. A later entry in the Memoirs, from around 1833 to 1835, mentions "two inns which afford only moderate accommodation to travellers." Things appear to have improved within a decade: Alexander Knox, writing shortly afterwards, mentions the Antrim Arms by name and notes the "very good posting establishment" — that is, a carriage service — associated with it. Slater's Directory of 1846 lists an Archibald McDonnell as manager. By 1859, Archibald had been succeeded by John McDonnell, who was renting both formerly separate properties from the McGildowny family; the valuers noted specifically that the smaller house was by then part of the hotel.

The 1859 valuation gives some insight into the interior at that time. The western section contained six rooms and garrets. The eastern section appears to have had four rooms on the ground floor and four on the first floor, with a kitchen and at least one room in the cellar, as well as a servants' water closet in a return room. The near-contemporary 1857 Ordnance Survey map shows a short return to the east of centre and a long narrow return to the west connecting to a structure — possibly a stable — at the south end of the yard, along with a large freestanding structure on the east side of the yard. None of the returns visible today appear to have existed at this stage.

James McDonnell was succeeded by Mary McDonnell in 1875, then by Thomas E. Linden in 1878, and Albert R.H. Wegg in 1880. In that same year the valuers recorded an addition to the property, which, on the basis of later evidence, may have involved the construction of part of the present large eastern return.

In 1886 Robert Hunter took over the management. George Bassett's 1888 Book of County Antrim contains an advertisement for the hotel including an illustration showing the main front section much as it appears today, but with the eastern return only three storeys as far as the carriage archway and two storeys beyond it, with the gable of another structure visible at its south end. In 1897 the portion of the eastern return beyond the carriage archway was raised to three storeys throughout. A plan drawn up by the valuers in that year to record this change also sheds light on the rest of the building, showing shallow rear projections — two and three storeys deep, between ten and eleven feet — at the centre and left of the rear facade. Two of these appear to have been the rear additions recorded in 1835, while a third was seemingly added between 1859 and 1897 without being formally recorded at the time. One small section of these projections is noted as having a glass roof. At the south end of the yard there was a large building measuring 50 by 18 by 20 feet, probably the same structure shown on the 1857 map and possibly a stable block. Along the west wall of the yard ran a long, probably lean-to, single-storey open shed measuring 57 by 8 by 4½ feet. The notebook also records that the new three-storey extension to the eastern return added ten rooms, bringing the total — together with the twelve rooms in the old inn — to nineteen single bedrooms and three double bedrooms.

The hotel remained under Hunter family management until 1913, when an Ida McCambridge is listed as the occupant. In the same year, the valuers recorded the demolition of the long open shed on the west side of the yard and the construction of the two-storey western return.

Photographic evidence from around 1920 shows the words "Ulster Bank" spelled out in raised lettering above the two windows immediately to the right of the entrance, indicating that a bank operated from the premises at that time. The Ulster Bank's official history records that a branch opened in Ballycastle in 1917, though the valuers make no mention of any subletting for banking purposes at that time. The western section was separately sublet from the 1930s onwards. The branch may have been part-time, renting space for business on one or two days a week, as was common practice in many provincial towns and villages.

Ida McCambridge was succeeded by Edmund Francis McCambridge around 1932. From around 1935, Joseph Sandford rented the formerly separate western section as offices, followed by John Scally from 1945 and William McGill from 1952 to 1969. The main eastern portion was occupied by Kevin and Patrick McKaigney from 1947, reverting to the McCambridge family — represented by Ena McCambridge — after 1952, where it remained until at least 1972. In 1969 the western section, by then in use as a bookmakers, ceased to be let separately.