Shelter, Lower Lansdowne Road, Portrush, Co. Antrim, BT56 8AY

A double-height gabled former Royal National Lifeboat Institution lifeboat shelter with slipway, built around 1860 and located on the coastline to the north of Portrush town centre in County Antrim.

The building is rectangular on plan with a modern extension to the northwest. It has a flat roof with corniced pediments to the gables. The walling is ruled-and-lined painted render with a stepped cornice and a contrasting chamfered band above a stone plinth. Aluminium downpipes and hoppers have been installed.

Windows are replacement 3/2 timber-framed units with painted stone lintels and flush painted stone sills, except for plate-glass aluminium framed windows on the northeast elevation. The gabled front to the southwest contains a large square-headed opening with a replacement folding timber-sheeted door topped by four sets of four-paned lights. Stone lettering on the pediment reads "SHELTER".

The northwest elevation has three evenly spaced windows with a contemporary stone-faced public convenience extension to its right, featuring varnished hardwood-sheeted openings. The northeast elevation, which opens onto the slipway, has been modified with large aluminium doors and sidelights at ground level fronted by a modern steel balcony, and replacement aluminium plate-glass windows above. The southeast elevation has four evenly spaced windows.

The slipway is formed from a stone and concrete ramp retaining original steel slip rails. Original stone walling with rounded coping runs along the northwest side of the slipway.

The building is prominently sited along the coastline at the northern tip of the western strand, with a large tarmacadamed car park to the west. An original raised concrete pathway runs directly to the southeast side of the building, and modern paving with a modern metal handrail has been laid to the southeast. The slipway runs northeast out to sea.

The structure first appears on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1906 captioned as "Lifeboat House" with a slipway to the rear. An exact date of construction could not be determined as the structure does not appear in valuation records. By the fourth edition map of 1921 to 1931, the building was captioned as "Lavatories". The building was refurbished and extended in 2012 by Donnelly O'Neill architects of Belfast and Dundalk, with Bell Contracts of Cookstown undertaking the work.

The shelter is a good example of the modest structures built throughout Ireland during the mid-nineteenth century to house lifeboats. Although no longer in use by the RNLI, the building has important social and local history, with much of its original character preserved during the recent refurbishment, including the original slipway and steel slip.