70 COAST ROAD, CUSHENDALL, Ballymena, CO.ANTRIM

70 Coast Road, Cushendall, is a detached former coastguard station built around 1832 in the townland of Bellisk (also known as Waterford), now in use as a private dwelling. It was originally constructed to protect the shipping and passenger steamers that frequently sailed along County Antrim's east coast, and served for much of its operational life as the living quarters for the Chief Coastguard Officer. The building retains most of its original detailing and the overall character of an important public building, and sits within a fine coastal setting. It has group value with the adjacent former coastguard officers' quarters at 80–84 Coast Road, which are also listed.

The building is T-shaped on plan, facing west and set well back on the east side of Coast Road at a level lower than the road. The main block is two storeys and two bays, with a central gable-fronted two-storey entrance bay projection. A one-and-a-half-storey wing extends to the south, and a single-storey extension has been added to the rear. The roof is pitched natural slate with roll-moulded terracotta ridge tiles. Rendered and profiled chimneystacks with octagonal clay pots rise from either gable end. Rainwater goods are replacement steel. The walls are finished in whitewashed lime render.

Window openings are square-headed with covered sills and fitted with replacement timber sliding sash windows with ogee horns. The windows are generally 6/3 pane, with a 6/9 pane window to the stairhall. The front elevation has asymmetrically placed window openings. The entrance bay contains a square-headed door opening with an original six-panelled timber door featuring bolection mouldings and a brass letterbox, opening onto a single stone step beneath a timber-framed projecting trellised shelter. The one-and-a-half-storey southern wing on the front elevation has a single wall-head dormer window. The north side elevation is blind and gabled, with a central external chimney flue.

The two-bay two-storey rear elevation is extended to the south by the one-and-a-half-storey wing, with a gable-fronted single-storey extension. To the south cheek of this extension is a replacement vertically-sheeted timber half door with a glazed panel, opening onto a single granite step to a paved rear area. The south side elevation has a single window opening to the left and is abutted by a single-storey whitewashed rubblestone outbuilding with a lean-to natural slate roof and vertically-sheeted timber doors to its east elevation.

The building occupies a generous site with its rear garden extending to the coastline. The boundary to the north is a rubblestone wall with a single steel pedestrian gate. A further single-storey whitewashed stone outbuilding to the north has a natural slate roof and early multi-pane fixed timber windows. The site is enclosed to the road by a low rubblestone wall with two squat sandstone ashlar piers with capstones. A modern polished granite plaque to the north of the entrance commemorates Dr. Seamus Mac Donaill (1763–1845).

The building was first recorded on the first-edition Ordnance Survey map of 1832, though the contemporary Townland Valuations note that it remained unroofed and was considered not fit to live in as late as 1834, when it was described as a 'Water Guard Station' valued at £4 and occupied by a Lieutenant McGillicuddy. The second-edition Ordnance Survey map of 1857 shows the one-and-a-half-storey southern wing and the two-storey entrance porch already in place. Griffith's Valuation of around 1859 described the site as a coastguard's station house, watch house and boat house, administered by the Admiralty, with a value increased to £9.

By 1885, the Annual Revisions record the building as living quarters for the Chief Coastguard Officer, with new mess quarters for other officers built immediately to the south in that year. The 1911 Census of Ireland records the Chief Coastguard Officer for the area as a Mr. Jeremiah Hennessy, residing at this address. The census building return classified it as a second-class dwelling of six rooms with minor outbuildings including a fowl house, turf house and store.

The building continued as a coastguard station and dwelling until around 1930, when it was purchased outright by a Mr. Johnston Montgomery and converted to a private dwelling. By 1936, the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland records a rateable value of £30. A Mr. Todd Martin occupied the building from 1949, purchasing it in 1967 and continuing to reside there through the Second General Revaluation period, by the end of which the value stood at £37. The 1972 Ulster Architectural Heritage Society guide to the Glens of Antrim described it simply as 'a considerably older house, perhaps of c. 1830 or earlier, whitewashed and attractively kept, close to the rocky shore.' The single-storey kitchen extension to the east elevation was added around 1998. The building was listed in 1992.

The coast off Cushendall and Red Bay, which this station was charged with monitoring, saw several notable wrecks in the early 19th century, including the transatlantic barque New Zealand (1841), the Mediterranean-bound brig Scotia (1842), and the Helen (1849), a ferry operating between Glenarm and Glasgow.