Hybla, 36 Quay Road, Ballycastle, Co Antrim, BT54 6BH

Hybla is a well-proportioned mid-18th-century house in Georgian style, sited prominently on Quay Road in Ballycastle. It is a Grade B1 listed building.

The main house is a five-bay, two-and-a-half-storey semi-detached structure with a central entrance door and attached gateway. The building is set back approximately six metres from the footwalk, with a front garden divided by a straight garden path. The façade is finished in smooth rendered, lined, unpainted wall surfaces.

The entrance door is a three-panelled design with the upper panel glazed with margin glazing. It is topped by a plain shallow rectangular fanlight and features a well-executed Gibbsian surround with keystone and handsome moulded cornice. A deepish shallow band traverses the façade, separating it from the surround. Above the cornice and fitted between it and the first-floor cill is a framed plaque. On each side of the door are two vertical windows with 12 panes; the top three panes of each are combined to form top-hinged opening lights with slim astragals. The windows have stooled sandstone cills, painted.

At first-floor level are five windows over the openings below. The southern end window is treated as ground floor level; the other four are double-hung sliding sash windows with 12 panes each, exposed sash boxes, and stooled sandstone cills. The Gibbsian door surround, the plain band stringcourse, and the flat arches to the first-floor windows are painted. The keystones over the first-floor windows remain unpainted. A half-round metal gutter sits over a plain corbel course, draining to a trunkhead with circular metal downpipe.

The roof is clad in natural slates with steep pitch. Barge stones to the north end, which is gabled with a chimney stack, and the south end abuts the higher roof of the adjacent house with a central chimney stack. Two three-pane cast-iron rooflights pierce the roof.

To the north end is a segmental arched gateway within a short length of wall aligned with the front of the house. The stonework surround is rusticated with a keystone. A pair of gate pillars further to the south appear contemporary with the building; these are cylindrical and topped with a steep conical cap resting on a sawtooth pattern of bricks.

The rear of the building comprises two-storey additions. A flat-roofed return, added to the north side of the main pitched return (itself a Victorian-period extension), contains two one-over-one sash windows at first floor and a sheeted door at ground level. The Victorian return has two Georgian-paned sashes at first floor—one eight-over-eight and one four-over-eight—with an enlarged casement window at ground level and a sheeted door. Both returns are finished in sand-cement lined ashlar.

Adjoining the returns is an earlier stables or garage block, built of rubble stone with decayed lime harling render. It features two large timber garage doors at ground level, an eight-over-eight sash at first floor, and a smaller one-over-one sash. The rear, facing the neighbouring property, contains a round-headed window at low level.

To the rear of the listed house are stone-built outhouses forming back returns. The outhouses have been converted to flat or holiday accommodation, with an entrance constructed in the boundary wall to Quay Road with a large canopy of inappropriate character.

A building to the north of the entrance arch, with a shopfront to the road, extends back into the site as a single-storey modern construction finished with a natural slate roof. It connects to an earlier two-storey barn of rubble construction with the remains of lime render, a natural slate roof, rendered brick steps to the first-floor door on the east gable, and small door openings.

The house is likely mid-18th century, appearing on the Ordnance Survey map of 1832 and on a map prepared by C. Dallat indicating Ballycastle's layout circa 1760. C. Brett in the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society publication Glens of Antrim suggests it may be earlier, possibly the earliest house in the town. The building establishes the building line for all houses between it and the Marine Hotel. The property was originally in single ownership with the adjacent house at its south end. Brick was burnt on site for the building from works located to the south of its boundary. Subdivision occurred in the mid-19th century, when the southern building was raised and new returns were added to create separate ownerships. The house contains refined detailing and is located within Ballycastle Conservation Area.