5 Coastguard Cottages, Causeway View Lane, Portrush, BT56 8DA

Number 5 Coastguard Cottages is a two-storey mid-terraced house, built in 1896 as part of a former Coastguard station. It forms one of six dwellings in a terrace (1–6 Coastguard Cottages) that, together with the detached station building and commanding officer's house at 130 Main Street, a range of original outhouses, and a later boathouse and associated store, makes up a coherent and largely intact late Victorian Coastguard estate. The identity of the architect is not known. Building costs are thought to have amounted to approximately £2,500.

The station as a whole replaced an earlier pre-1857 station on the same site, which consisted of a station house and four smaller dwellings arranged in a terrace fronting directly onto Main Street, and which may not have been purpose-built. A Board of Works tender notice for the new buildings appeared in August 1892, though valuation records do not refer to a new Coastguard station in progress until 1896.

The entire grouping is designed in a simple, loosely Georgian style — almost artisan-cottage in character — and may originally have been finished in brick, though it is now almost entirely rendered. The station occupies a slight rise on the northern edge of Portrush town centre, sitting between Main Street to the south and Causeway View Lane to the north. The terrace is orientated north to south, with the former station building at the south end of the site, its south face opening directly onto the Main Street pavement. The detached gardens belonging to each of the dwellings lie to the west side of the terrace.

Within the terrace, the six cottages are arranged in pairs with mirrored internal layouts. Cottages 3 to 4 and 5 to 6 are paired with identical internal accommodation and are entered from the east side, with access off Causeway View Lane. Cottages 1 and 2 are also paired but are slightly larger and entered from the west side, with access off Main Street. The relative sizes reflect the occupants' status: the commanding officer occupied No. 130 Main Street, middle-ranking officers occupied Nos. 1 and 2, and the remaining cottages housed lower-ranking staff. No. 5 is mid-terraced, sitting immediately to the north of No. 4. Its front façade faces east and is accessed via a communal yard.

The roof is pitched and finished with natural slate and grey fireclay ridge tiles. The eaves overhang with exposed rafter tails. Rainwater goods are uPVC. There is a shared rendered chimneystack to the ridge, with corbelled bands and unmatched clay pots. The walls are rendered with a ruled and lined finish; the west-side wall is set on a rubble stone canted plinth. To the left side of the rear façade there is a single-storey projecting lean-to porch. On the north face of this porch there is a flat-headed door opening with a timber sheeted door; to the east face there is a small flat-headed window with a single-light timber frame.

Windows are flat-headed and informally arranged to the west and east façades. Frames are a mixture of 1-over-1 and 6-over-6 timber sash. To the first floor of the west façade there are two windows, the larger to the left and the smaller to the right. There is one window at ground-floor level to the right side.

To the east side of the terrace there are two communal access yards divided by a masonry wall. The northern yard provides access to the front entrances of Nos. 3–6, while the southern yard gives access to the rear of Nos. 130, 1, and 2. To the rear of Nos. 3–6 there is a small range of single-storey outbuildings containing a communal washhouse and two small outhouses per dwelling — one an outside WC and the other a fuel store. The detached gardens extend to the west side.

The main station building originally possessed a rocket station and a look-out hut, which may have been elevated, though this is not certain. A Belfast truss-roofed building was constructed at some point after 1921 — and possibly after 1935, as it does not appear on the Ordnance Survey map partially revised in that year — on part of the gardens originally belonging to Nos. 5 and 6. It does not appear to have had any direct relationship to the cottages themselves.

The history of the individual cottages after the Coastguard's reorganisation in 1923 is well documented. From that year, when the Coastguard was placed under the Board of Trade with its role restricted to life-saving, salvage from wreck, and the administration of the foreshore, staff numbers were reduced and the dwellings began to be let. In 1923, No. 6 was recorded as let to a Mrs. Millar. By 1925, Cottages 2–6 were tenanted by George Scarborough, William Elliott, John Henry, Charles Meadows, and Mrs. Millar respectively. Cottage No. 1 and the station building itself were retained by the Coastguard service until at least 1972, with No. 1 acquired by its then-current owner in the mid-1980s. No. 2 passed through several tenants — Daniel Aughlin from around 1926 and Patrick J. Fleming from 1928 — before being taken back into Coastguard use around 1933, remaining so until it was sold to its then-current owner around 1973. No. 3 stayed in the Elliott family until 1944 and was subsequently occupied by Mary C. Ferguson (1945–51) and James Gildea (1951–61), before Thomas Patton became resident in 1961 and acquired the freehold in 1963. Alistair McCooke bought it in 1985 and sold it in 1993, with the most recent sale recorded around 2003. No. 4 was the home of Catherine Minihan from 1926 and appears to have remained with her family until 1954, when Thomas Patton is recorded as tenant, followed by Thomas Hamilton around 1961 and Anna Hamilton around 1971; the most recent owner acquired the property in the mid-1990s. No. 5 — the subject of this listing — was occupied by Angus Mann in 1926 and then by Marta C. G. Mann in 1945, with William Knox recorded as the immediate lessor; the property was acquired by its most recent owner in 1971. No. 6 remained with Mrs. Millar until 1940, when William Strathdee is recorded as resident, followed by a Mr. or Mrs. Hamill from around 1957 to around 1972; subsequent occupants recorded by the owners who purchased in 1994 include Vicky and Jimmy Doole (around 1974–84), Gail [surname unknown] (1984–86), and Brian Ross (1986–94).

The Coastguard in Ireland traces its origins to the Preventative Water Guard, a UK-wide body established in 1809 to combat smuggling. In 1816 it was expanded and reorganised to take control of revenue vessels, and in 1822 was transferred to the Board of Customs and renamed the Coast Guard. Though in practice involved in the rescue of those in difficulties at sea, revenue protection rather than lifesaving remained its official function. In 1856 it was transferred to the Admiralty, and its staff — thereafter mainly naval men — took on coastal defence roles and acted as a naval reserve. In 1923 the Coastguard passed to the Board of Trade, with its role formally restricted to life-saving, salvage from wreck, and administration of the foreshore.