18 High Street, Cushendall, Co.Antrim, BT44 0NB

No. 18 High Street is a detached two-storey, four-bay house built in a late-Georgian style, constructed around 1857 and possibly dating from as early as the 1830s. It sits on the south side of High Street in Cushendall, with its principal elevation facing north. The listing covers the dwelling itself along with its walling, gates, gate posts and railings.

The house is rectangular on plan and sits within its own grounds, set behind a limewashed stone wall with sandstone capping and original decorative wrought iron gates and gate posts.

The front elevation is finished in smooth block-lined render with a painted finish, with stepped plain quoins at each end of the main house and a slight step back to the end bay on the right side. All window openings are square-headed, set on painted masonry sills with a painted plaster band to the reveals. The ground floor bays are aligned with those above. Windows throughout are exposed box timber sliding sash — 6/6 pane on the ground floor and 3/6 pane on the first floor — all retaining their original painted timber shutters to the inside. The front door is a raised-and-fielded six-panel painted timber door set within a square-headed opening, sheltered by a timber lattice windbreak porch with a pitched slate roof. A single concrete step leads up from ground level to the threshold. A painted sheeted timber door serves the recessed bay to the right side.

The roof to the front elevation is pitched natural slate with clay ridge tiles and two rendered chimney stacks with circular black pots. Note that at the time of the final pre-listing visit, both chimneys and pots had been renewed. Half-round replacement PVC guttering is fixed to a painted timber fascia and terminates in circular PVC downpipes to the front elevation.

The east elevation abuts the adjacent property boundary. It has a single square-headed window opening at first floor level on a painted masonry sill, containing a 2/4 pane exposed box timber sliding sash window. The fascia is painted timber with a simple tail detail, and there is a painted timber soffit. A large smooth render painted chimney stack with a stepped cornice sits at the ridge on this elevation.

The west elevation reads as single-storey in height — effectively at first floor level — owing to a change in ground levels. It has a small rear return with a pitched slate roof and a chimney stack at the mid-ridge. The walling is smooth block-lined render with a painted finish. A square-headed window opening on a painted masonry sill contains a 9/9 pane exposed box timber sliding sash window with original painted timber shutters to the inside. The rear return has a replacement timber casement window in a Georgian style, with painted timber fascia and soffit. The south elevation to the rear was not visible at the time of survey. The roof to the rear is fibre cement tiles, contrasting with the natural slate to the front. Rainwater goods to the rear are also uPVC.

The buildings along High Street, including No. 18, were largely erected in the first half of the 19th century under the direction of the landowning Turnly family. Francis Turnly, Cushendall's proprietor, had travelled to China in 1796 where he amassed a fortune of around £75,000. In 1801 he used this money to purchase the estate of Newtownglens from the Richardson family for £24,000, subsequently renaming the settlement Cushendall. At the time of purchase the village consisted of little more than a number of insignificant cabins, a mill and a bridge. Turnly — described by the architectural historian Brett as an eccentric character who "effected extraordinary improvements in buildings and roads on his property" — developed the village into a coastal resort, capitalising on growing tourist traffic passing through on the way to the Giant's Causeway. Hotels such as the Glens of Antrim on Shore Street and numerous commercial properties were erected as part of this development.

No. 18 High Street may date from as early as the Townland Valuations of 1834, though it is difficult to identify the specific structure in that source owing to the loss of the accompanying town plan. The building is first recorded with certainty on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1857 and in Griffith's Valuation of 1859, which noted that the property was valued at £6 and was leased to a Mr James McDonnell by the Turnly family. Annual Revisions record that McDonnell had vacated by 1869, when the house was in use as a lodging house. By 1880 it had reverted to use as a private dwelling, occupied by a Mr William McQuillan, who remained until 1893 when Henry Wilcock, a constable with the Royal Irish Constabulary, took possession. The Ordnance Survey Town Plan of 1903 shows the property in its current form, including the rear return. Occupants continued to change with frequency, and by the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57) the house had been increased in value to £9 and was occupied by a Ms Margaret Cochrane. In 1969 the property was purchased outright by a Mr Edward O'Loan, who remained at the address to the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72), by which time the building's rateable value stood at £12 and 10 shillings.

In 1972 the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society's Guide for the Glens of Antrim described High Street as "an outstandingly attractive street, of quite exceptional merit and character, climbing very steeply indeed from the crossing of the main street to Court McMartin, almost every building in it of individual merit as well as the value of the group as a whole; the roofs, gables, doors and windows rise in an irregular staircase up the hillside." The guide described No. 18 specifically as a "nice two-storey Georgian-glazed cottage perched on the slope at an angle to the road." The buildings along High Street were included within the Cushendall Conservation Area in 1975 — only the second conservation area to have been designated in the province, a fact described as testimony in itself to the special qualities of the village. That same year Cushendall was chosen as one of Northern Ireland's four pilot schemes for conservation during the European Architectural Heritage Year.

No. 18 retains most of its distinctive features, character and style with much original detailing surviving. Together with its neighbours it contributes positively to its setting and to the Cushendall Conservation Area as a whole.