49 & 51 Quay Road, Ballycastle, Co Antrim, BT54 6BN

A pair of 2½ storey houses five bays wide in terrace at Ballycastle. The buildings appear to have been originally constructed in the early 19th century but were substantially added to and altered in the mid-19th century.

The block appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1832. Historical evidence, including a topographical painting depicting Hugh Boyd's manor house and adjacent former industrial sites, suggests these houses were originally two storeys. The painting apparently dates from around 1800 but probably dates from after 1857, as it depicts the triple-arch Bonamargy Bridge rather than the previous five-arch bridge which was washed away in 1857. The addition of the upper storey would therefore appear to date from after 1857. The contemporary modifications to the façade, including the introduction of plate glass in window sashes, impart a mid-19th century or slightly later character to the properties.

Number 49 features an entrance door with a pair of vertical double-hung sliding sash two-pane windows over, and a pair of similar windows over the ground floor windows. At roof level, two gabled dormers with single vertical windows break the eaves line. The roof is natural slated with a single chimney stack. A half-round gutter is fixed to the meagre eaves overhang, with plain timber barges to the dormers with couple ties and two downpipes.

Number 51 has a plain entrance door with a single vertical ground floor window, a single vertical window centred at first floor above, and a single dormer directly over this window, similar in design to those on No. 49. The roof is natural slated with a gable chimney stack. Half-round metal gutters and two downpipes are present.

Both properties have smooth rendered and painted walls. All ground floor windows and doors are currently boarded up.

To the north, a high boundary wall runs at the back of the footwalk, maintaining the building line. Within this wall is a boarded-up small shop window and door. The wall is rendered and painted to match Numbers 49 and 51, with brick coping. The wall reduces in height beyond the shopfront in a sweeping downward curve.