48-50 Castle Street, Ballycastle, Co Antrim, BT54 6AR

A plain rendered two-storey terrace house of probable 18th century construction, situated on the north side of Castle Street to the west of Ballycastle town centre, with a small unfussy 19th century shop front. The south-facing front elevation shows evidence of originally having had rough symmetry, now disrupted by the insertion of the shop front.

The house doorway, slightly left of centre, comprises a recessed modern panelled and glazed door with a plain rectangular fanlight and simple moulded surround. To the left is a window with a recessed Georgian paned sash frame (6/6 panes) featuring late Victorian looking decorative cast iron cheval-de-fris, some panes being bull's-eyes. To the right of the doorway sits the small shop front, consisting of a panelled and glazed door on the left and a single light fixed frame window, both enclosed with simple pilasters and a plastic signboard over with projecting cornice. The first floor has three unevenly spaced windows, similar in style to the ground floor openings but slightly smaller and without the cheval-de-fris. The front façade is finished in lined render and painted. The gabled roof is covered in artificial slate (at least to the front), with a rendered chimney stack to the west and metal rainwater goods.

An archway and the floor above it immediately to the west of the house appear to have once belonged to the property (at least in the mid 1800s) but now appear to belong to number 46.

The first valuation of December 1834 records an old house of similar dimensions on this site, then occupied by Denis McAuley and including a bake house at the rear. As later valuations record no major changes to the main property (other than the addition of the section over the archway to the west and the insertion of the shop front), the 1834 house is likely the building seen today. The building is undoubtedly one of the 127 two-storey houses mentioned in the Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1835, and like many properties within Castle Street may date from circa 1740-70, when the town assumed much of its present form under improving landlord Hugh Boyd.

Denis McAuley is listed as one of three bakers living in Castle Street (then called Main Street) in Pigot's and Company's Directory of 1824. By the 1859 valuation, the occupant was recorded as Denis Black. At that stage the property also incorporated the part over the archway to the west side (now appearing to belong to number 46) and contained a shop, kitchen, and room below, five rooms over and garrets with one room in return. The valuers also noted that at that point there were ten small houses being built at the rear of this house by Mr Black, a grouping subsequently known as Castle Place. Denis Black (possibly the same man listed as a tailor in Slater's Directories of 1846 and 1856) remained in residence until 1872, though the shop was rented by Alexander McAllister from at least 1864.

John Darragh is recorded as the next occupant of both house and shop (1876-84), followed by Matthew Workman (1884-circa 1888), Hester Black (circa 1888-98), and William James Caldwell (1898-1908). In 1898 the rateable valuation of the property dropped from £9-15-0 to £6-10-0, perhaps suggesting that the archway and room over had been acquired by the neighbouring building at that point. William James Caldwell was succeeded by W.J. Hanna, who appears to have lived there until 1925. Afterwards a Patrick Maguire is recorded as resident, then Edward McCormick (1926-circa 1932), Robert Devenney (circa 1932-47), and Leslie Legg (1947-57 onwards). The shop was occupied by W.P. O'Brien (1926-44) and Patrick Duffin, followed by the householder Leslie Legg from 1947. The shop, which appears latterly to have served as a butchers, is currently vacant.

The building has been modernised and inappropriate signage has reduced its architectural and historical character.