The House of McDonnell, 71 Castle Street, Ballycastle, County Antrim, BT54 6AS

The House of McDonnell, 71 Castle Street, Ballycastle

This is a very good example of a substantial three-storey public house with living quarters above, built around the 1750s, with a third storey and large rear returns added around 1885. The building has remained largely untouched since the 1880s and retains a fine late Victorian pub interior.

The property stands on the south side of Castle Street, close to Ballycastle town centre, with its asymmetrical front elevation facing north.

Exterior — Front Elevation

On the ground floor, the pub front appears to date from the latter half of the 19th century. It comprises a doorway to the left with a panelled timber door and plain rectangular fanlight, and a large window to the right with a timber frame containing three tall semicircular-headed lights. Both the doorway and window are encased with timber pilasters rising to a moulded cornice, with a painted timber signboard above and a projecting cornice hood over that. To the left of the pub front is a separate house doorway with a panelled and mirror-glazed timber double door, a segmental-headed fanlight, and a moulded architrave. Further left again is another doorway — leading to the rear of the building — with a panelled timber door and plain rectangular fanlight.

At first-floor level there are four uniformly and symmetrically arranged windows with moulded surrounds and horned timber sash frames with plate glass glazing. The second floor has four matching windows of the same type. The front façade is finished in painted lined render with raised in-and-out quoins. The east and west gables are exposed only at second-floor level; both are finished in painted render and have no openings.

Exterior — Rear Elevation

To the left-hand (west) side of the rear elevation there is a long three-storey gabled return extending from a broader but shallower gabled return. To the south, the long return reduces to a one-and-a-half-storey section with a lean-to roof.

On the east face of the long return, at ground-floor level, there is a window to the left with a horned timber sash frame (two panes over two), a doorway with a timber-sheeted door in the middle, and to the right a window with a mullioned and transomed timber frame with Georgian-style panes and patterned glass. At first-floor level there is a window to the left with a timber sash frame with Georgian panes (six over six), and a similar but larger window to the right (eight panes over eight). At second-floor level there are two windows of similar size to those directly below, both with timber sash frames (two panes over two).

On the east face of the lean-to section to the south, at ground-floor level, there is a doorway to the right with a timber-sheeted door, a small window to the left with a timber frame and iron security bars, and a further upper-level doorway to the left again with a door of the same type, reached via a short flight of steps.

The broader return to the north has a window at ground-floor level with a horned timber sash frame and plate glass glazing, and a similar window at first-floor level. The second-floor level of this return is twice as broad as the floors below, with the overhang supported on a tall steel beam. Within the recess under this overhang — which is also the only exposed section of the rear façade of the main building — there is a timber-sheeted door at ground level and a matching window at first-floor level. This doorway appears to enclose a passage that can also be entered via the door at the far left (east) of the front elevation.

The components of the rear elevation are largely finished in unpainted roughcast. In places this roughcast has come away from the east face of the longer return, revealing brick construction beneath.

Roof and Services

The gabled roof of the main building is slated, as are the roofs of the returns, though only small sections of these were visible at the time of survey. There are two rendered ridge chimneystacks to the main building. Rainwater goods are mainly cast iron, with some uPVC sections to the rear.

Within the rear yard there is a large single-storey toilet block, largely constructed in concrete block, which appears to be a relatively recent addition. To the south it projects westward to abut the lean-to section of the long return.

Interior

The building retains a fine late Victorian pub interior. The interior detailing is largely late Victorian in character, consistent with the alterations believed to have taken place around 1885. The original part of the staircase is slightly finer in finish than the mid-18th-century staircases seen elsewhere in Castle Street, which may suggest the original building dates from slightly later than the 1740s — perhaps around 1760.

Historical Background

The current owner states that the property has been in his family's hands since at least 1766, with the earliest deed he has seen dated 1759, and that the building has always contained licensed premises of some description.

The first valuation of January 1835 records the building in the hands of a George McLaughlin, with the main dwelling measured at 31 feet by 23 by 18, an addition described as half office and half dwelling at 15 by 23 by 11½, and thatched stables and outbuildings at 26 by 19 by 9½. All sections were regarded by the valuers as of considerable age at that time, supporting the deed dates as reliable indicators of the original construction. Much of Castle Street appears to have been built in the 1740s, and it is entirely feasible that the property dates from that decade, though the evidence of the deeds and the quality of the staircase could suggest a slightly later date, perhaps around 1760.

By 1859 the property had passed to John McDonnell. By that point, much had been added to the rear, including two returns measured at 5 yards by 9 by 3 storeys and 2 by 3 by 2 storeys, together with numerous offices and sheds. The valuers recorded the main building as containing a good shop, a room off it, three rooms over, and two garrets; the larger return had three good rooms and the second return two small rooms. The property was noted as not well finished but a good concern. Although the main portion of the building was still two storeys at this time, the larger rear return was recorded as three-storey — presumably with lower floor-to-ceiling heights so that it matched the overall height of the main building. It is assumed that the present three-storey returns are later rebuilds.

John McDonnell was succeeded by Mary McDonnell in 1875, then by Charles McLaughlin in 1886, and Randal McDonnell in 1891, who remained there until the early 1930s. Randal McDonnell ran a veterinary practice from the building for most of this time, alongside the licensed premises.

A significant amount of building work must have taken place after 1859 to give the building its present three-storey height and large returns. These changes must predate 1895, after which all significant alterations to properties were recorded in the valuers' office notebooks. A gap in valuations between 1859 and 1862 could suggest work in those years, but the fact that the rateable valuation actually fell from £32 to £30 in that period argues against it. The interior detailing points to changes after around 1875, and a date of around 1885 seems most likely. A significant number of properties in the town were heightened or extended around this date, possibly connected with a relaxation of building restrictions on properties leased from the Boyd estate, or with the growth of Ballycastle's prosperity through increased tourism — aided in part by the arrival of the railway in 1880 — or a combination of both.

Randal McDonnell was succeeded around 1932 by Mary McDonnell, who held the property until her death in 1979, when it passed to her nephew, the present owner. Before Partition in 1921, the licensed premises operated as a spirit grocery, with groceries sold from the front of the shop and spirits and related goods sold from the rear. Spirit groceries were not permitted in the new Northern Ireland state, and the business — then known as The Store — subsequently became a public house.