27 Main Street, Bushmills, Co.Antrim

27 Main Street, Bushmills, is a two-storey, two-bay, painted rendered late-Georgian house, constructed prior to 1832 on the west side of Main Street in the north part of Bushmills village centre, with the Bush River lying to the west. It was built as part of the extensive reconstruction of the village undertaken by the MacNaghten family in the early 19th century, following their acquisition of the Bushmills estate in 1787.

The building has a rectangular plan and presents its principal elevation to the north-east, facing directly onto Main Street and accessed via a paved footpath. This front facade is two bays wide. The entrance doorway is positioned to the right and contains a replacement timber panelled door with a plain glazed transom light above. To the left is a single 1/1 timber sliding sash window. On the first floor, two 1/1 timber sliding sash windows are aligned with the openings below. The walling throughout is painted render. The roof is pitched and covered in replacement natural slate with black clay ridge tiles, and carries a single unpainted chimney stack centred on the ridge, fitted with octagonal buff clay pots. Cast-iron rainwater goods are used throughout.

The south-east elevation is adjoined to the neighbouring property at No. 29 Main Street, and the north-west elevation is adjoined to the Bushmills Inn. The south-west rear elevation is abutted on its left side by a two-storey painted rendered return with a slated pitched roof, constructed around 1986. Where visible, the rear return and main rear elevation retain timber sliding sash windows.

The building's history is well documented. It appears on both the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1832 and the Townland Valuation Town Plan of around 1834. The Townland Valuation of 1835 assessed its rateable value at £6 and 17 shillings and classified it as a 1A class building — that is, a new or nearly new slated building — measuring 20.6 feet by 28 feet and standing 20 feet in height. At that time it was unoccupied, with Sir Francis MacNaghten recorded as landlord.

By the mid-19th century the building had changed use: Griffith's Valuation of 1859 records it as a dispensary occupied by the Guardian of the Poor of Coleraine Union, with its rateable value reduced to £5 and exempt from taxation. It continued to serve as Bushmills' local dispensary until around 1873, when it reverted to use as a private dwelling and was revalued at £6. The house was then occupied by Mr George Suckling, whose family remained at the address until the 1920s. The 1901 Census of Ireland records the occupant as Samuel George Suckling, a butler employed by the MacNaghten family at their residence of Dundarave House. The census return described the house as a second-class dwelling with six inhabited rooms and a turf house as its sole outbuilding. The Ordnance Survey Town Plan of 1902 depicted it as a simple square-shaped structure with no extensions or significant outbuildings. Samuel George Suckling remained at No. 27 until his death in 1913, after which the house passed to his widow Eliza Suckling. The Suckling family had vacated the property by around 1929, when a Mr Robert Corrigan took possession.

The First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland, carried out between 1936 and 1957, increased the rateable value to £10 and 10 shillings and recorded that around 1946 the house was occupied by Ernest Morrison, a Royal Ulster Constabulary officer. The Morrison family continued to lease the property from the MacNaghten family at least until the end of the Second General Revaluation, completed between 1956 and 1972, by which time the total rateable value stood at £15.

The Ulster Architectural Heritage Society's 1972 guide to North Antrim described the buildings along Main Street in general terms: "A well-scaled street. Many good doorways and shopfronts remain, although there is the usual profusion of signs. While no building apart from the former Courthouse is worthy of individual mention, the unity of the street frontages must be maintained."

No. 27 was listed in 1980 and subsequently included within the Bushmills Conservation Area, designated in 1992 to preserve the built heritage of a village that holds the highest number of listed buildings in the north-east of Northern Ireland. Around 1986 the building underwent an extensive renovation which included the construction of the current rear return, the re-slating of the roof in second-hand natural slate, the installation of new timber sliding sash window frames and cast-iron rainwater goods, and the fitting of a replacement entrance door. Despite these modern alterations, the building retains its original simple domestic proportions and historic character within its village setting.