3 Main Street, Cushendun, Co.Antrim

No. 3 Main Street is a modest two-storey, three-bay white-painted roughcast rendered house with a basement level, built in the 1820s by an unknown architect. It is one of the earlier buildings in Cushendun, predating the cottages in the adjacent Square, and was first recorded on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1832. The building has a rectangular plan form, a pitched natural slate roof with black ridge tiles, and small-pane Georgian-style timber sliding sash windows with horns and exposed box frames painted in a contrasting colour to the walls, lending it a cottage character. It shares considerable group value with its immediate neighbour, No. 1 Main Street, to which it is adjoined on the south-east side, and with the many similar buildings of the village more broadly.

The principal, south-west-facing elevation fronts directly onto Main Street and Bay Road. It is almost symmetrical, with a central entrance porch set within the façade, featuring a small hipped slate roof over a curved, smooth-rendered white wall to either side, and a vertically sheeted painted timber door with painted metal door furniture. To either side of this porch at ground floor level is a single 6/6 timber sliding sash window; the three first-floor bays above each contain a 6/6 timber sliding sash window with horns and exposed box frames. The walls are set on a plinth painted in a contrasting colour. The roof is finished with black ridge tiles, and there is a single white-painted rendered chimney stack at each end at mid-ridge, both with stepped cornices; one stack retains a single clay pot. The eaves are stepped and carry out-and-up iron brackets supporting a half-round cast-iron gutter discharging to circular-section downpipes.

The north-west side elevation is of white-painted smooth-rendered finish, topped by a rendered chimney stack, and is otherwise blank. The south-east side is fully adjoined to No. 1 Main Street. The north-east rear elevation overlooks a modest rear yard and garden beyond, enclosed on the south-east side by a high stone wall, on the north-west side by a high white-painted concrete block wall, and on the north-east side by a stone wall and a white-rendered outbuilding with a corrugated metal roof. The rear elevation is abutted by a two-storey rear porch containing a set of concrete steps leading down to the rear yard. The fenestration to the rear is irregular and consists of a mixture of 2/2, 6/6, and 8/8 timber sliding sash windows, along with a single small-pane casement window at ground floor level of the rear porch, above a recessed doorway leading to the basement. The first-floor bays on the left side of the main rear elevation are not aligned with the bays below on the ground and basement levels. A rendered boiler house outshot is adjoined to the left side of the rear porch and steps.

The building is accessed from the street via a tarmac footpath leading to the front entrance porch. Although much of its character survives externally, some internal fabric has been lost.

The history of the building is well documented. The Townland Valuations of 1834 record it as owned by a Mr Neal McNeill and valued at £5 11 shillings. It was described at that time as a first-class-B dwelling — a slated building of medium age, slightly decayed but still in good repair — with a cellar, measuring 36.6 feet in length by 24 feet in breadth and standing 13.3 feet in height. By Griffith's Valuation of 1859, McNeill had leased the property to a Mr Daniel McKillop, and the value had risen to £6 15 shillings. McKillop remained at the address until 1869, when the house passed to Archibald McDonnell, a local farmer and publican, who converted the building into a public house by at least the early 1880s — the Annual Revisions first recording it as such around 1881. McDonnell remained there until his death in 1907, after which the property passed to Sarah McVeigh, who occupied it as a private dwelling. The 1911 Census of Ireland described it as a second-class dwelling of seven rooms, with a piggery and fowl house as its sole outbuildings. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (covering 1936–57), the building had become a combined dwelling and shop known as the "Hiker's Rest", valued at £15 and occupied by the Leavey family, who remained at the address until at least the 1970s. Ownership passed from the McNeill family to the National Trust in 1954. By the close of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72), the total rateable value stood at £27.

The building was utilised as a post office between the 1970s and 1980s and at that time possessed a pair of shopfronts at ground floor level. It was listed in 1980, the same year it was included within the designated Cushendun Conservation Area. An extensive renovation carried out in 1988 resulted in the replacement of the shopfronts with new sliding sash windows, the reconstruction of a chimney stack, the re-slating of the roof in second-hand slates, and the installation of new entrance doors. Around 2011 the roof underwent a further restoration with the replacement of some slates. At the time of survey the building was in use solely as a private dwelling.

The development of Cushendun as a village was bound up with broader changes in travel and tourism in early 19th-century Ireland. The disruption of continental European travel during the Napoleonic Wars made Ireland a more attractive destination for British tourists, increasing traffic along the Antrim Coast towards sites such as Dunluce Castle and the Giant's Causeway. The construction of the Coastal Road between 1832 and 1842 opened up the previously isolated Glens of Antrim, transforming settlements including Cushendun and Cushendall into popular seaside resorts. No. 3 Main Street was built before this road was completed and is therefore contemporary with the earliest phase of the village's development. Notable residences of the period built nearby include Glenmona Lodge and Glendun Lodge at Cushendun. In 1972 the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society described Nos. 1–3 Main Street as "a rather nice group of traditional white-washed two-storey houses."

The building is prominently situated at the heart of the village, close to the Square and the River Dun, with panoramic views of the coastline to the rear. It lies within both the Cushendun Conservation Area and a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The listing extends to the house and its boundary wall.