57 Hillside Road, Ballycastle, Co. Antrim, BT54 6HY

57 Hillside Road is an isolated two-storey, three-bay farmhouse with attic, set in a valley south of Ballycastle in the townland of Toberbilly. The property includes a complex of outbuildings and a modified former dwelling to the north-west, and the whole ensemble is an increasingly rare surviving example of an evolved vernacular farm dwelling in its original Ulster countryside setting. The house may contain fabric dating from the 18th century, and datestones record construction by a Thomas Sharp in 1777 and rebuilding by his son in 1874. The listing covers the house, the rubblestone wall on the south-west side, the south range, the north range, and the north-west barn.

ARCHITECTURE AND APPEARANCE

The farmhouse is of rectangular plan with a symmetrical principal elevation facing south-east. The pitched roof is clad in natural slate with angled ridge tiles, rendered skews, and gable chimneystacks. Remnants of cast-iron rainwater goods survive. The walls are lime-rendered over rubble stone with vestigial limewash remaining.

The front elevation is three bays wide, with the left bay slightly wider than the others. Openings are vertically aligned. The entrance door sits to the right of centre and is fitted with a timber sheeted door. Windows to the front are generally 8/8 timber sash with exposed sash boxes, the outer panes being narrower than the inner ones, set over stone cills. The window to the right of the front door at ground-floor level is no longer extant. The left (south-west) gable retains the remains of a 1/1 sliding sash window to the attic, positioned to the left of centre.

The rear elevation faces north-west and has a notably earlier character than the front. It is four openings wide on each floor, vertically aligned, with a door to the left of centre. Ground-floor windows to the rear are 6/6 sashes; those to the first floor are 3/6. A 20th-century concrete and brick wall, approximately 600mm high with metal handrails, has been constructed up against and along the full width of the rear elevation, forming a raised platform used for feeding animals. A rubblestone wall extends from the right side of the house, single storey in height, running along the south-west side.

The right (north-east) gable has a 3/6 attic window placed to the right side.

INTERIOR

The interior is well preserved and retains elements typical of a modest farm dwelling of the 19th century, including timber partitions and good, varied examples of pigmented limewash. The fittings are largely suggestive of the later 19th century, consistent with the 1874 rebuilding date recorded on the datestone, even though field evidence indicates the rear of the house is of earlier construction and that the 1874 work was a modification rather than a complete rebuild.

OUTBUILDINGS

The outbuildings form a complex to the north-west of the house. With the exception of a corrugated metal Dutch barn to the south, all are of rubble stone construction of varying heights, roofed in slate or corrugated metal.

The South Range is an attached row of single-storey barns to the west, the right-hand barn having a higher ridge than the left. Roofs are a mixture of corrugated metal and slate. Windows are generally absent, though some cast-iron lattice glazing survives to the rear elevation.

The North-West Barn is a two-storey structure with brick eaves, ventilation loop openings, timber sheeted doors, and a stone lintel.

The North Range includes what was originally a two-storey, three-bay dwelling with an attached outbuilding, later converted for use as a milking parlour and cowshed. The original cobbled flooring survives, but the first floor has been removed, the windows are gone, and only the remains of the slated roof survive. Attached to the north-east side are the remains of a corrugated metal Dutch barn.

HISTORY

The farm complex appears on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1832, and the general arrangement of buildings has remained largely unaltered since that date, despite valuation records indicating that buildings were rebuilt or modified numerous times through the 19th and early 20th centuries.

The datestone above the front door records that the original house was built by Thomas Sharp in 1777. Griffith's Valuation of 1861 shows the farm occupied by a Peter Sharpe, presumed to be Thomas's son, with the house valued at £2. By the revaluation of 1866, the farm had passed to Peter's son Thomas, who, according to the datestone, rebuilt the house in 1874. Despite this rebuilding, no rise in the property's valuation was recorded, and physical evidence confirms the work was a modification: the rear retains the character of the earlier house while the front and the interior fittings reflect the later 19th century date.

The lessor at this period is recorded as Alexander Stewart, with the property passing to an Abraham Kidd M.D. in 1877. The North Range, later converted to a cattle byre, has a domestic character; although present on the 1832 map, a second house on the site is not formally noted until the revaluation of 1895, when a building measuring 29 feet by 19½ feet by 15 feet was valued at £2 and 5 shillings and recorded as currently in use as farm offices. This may refer to the single-storey rubblestone building to the north of the main house.

By 1895 the occupier is listed as Catherine Sharpe, presumed widow of Thomas, who lived at the property with her four sons Robert, Thomas, William and James, her two daughters Lizzie and Sarah, and her grandson Silas J. Smythe. The 1901 census records eight outbuildings at this time: a stable, two cow houses, a calf house, a piggery, a boiling house, a barn, and a shed. By 1907 Catherine Sharpe had purchased the farm buildings and land under the 1901 Land Purchase Act, at which point the combined valuation of the buildings rose to £5 and 10 shillings. The revaluation of 1912 divides this between two buildings valued at £2 and £3 and 10 shillings respectively. By 1921 occupancy had passed to two of Catherine's sons, Robert and William, with the second house then valued at £1 and 10 shillings plus an additional 15 shillings. The current owner has noted that the shop at 72 Castle Street, Ballycastle, trading as Sharpe and McKinley, was owned by relations of the original Sharpe family.

SETTING

The farmhouse occupies an isolated rural setting in a valley, reached by a long farm lane from the Capecastle Road to the west. There are panoramic views of Knocklayde Mountain to the east. The remains of former railway tracks run to the south of the house in a north-west to south-east direction. Round rubblestone pillars mark the field entrance to the north-east of the house.