62 Castle Street, Ballycastle, Co Antrim, BT54 6AR

62 Castle Street is a plain, traditional three-storey shop and house, probably built between around 1740 and 1770 and most likely dating from the mid to later 18th century, with significant renovation carried out around 1882 when the present shop front and window frames were probably installed. The property sits on the north side of Castle Street, close to Ballycastle town centre, and forms part of a conservation area.

The symmetrical front elevation faces south and is finished in painted lined render. At ground floor level there is a traditional 19th-century shop front consisting of a central panelled double door flanked by two large windows with recent single-pane glazing, rendered stall-risers, reeded timber pilaster jambs with simple capitals, and a painted timber signboard with a projecting cornice. Traditional timber shutters are placed over the windows when the shop is closed. The first floor has three roughly evenly spaced windows with sash frames with two-over-two vertical glazing bars. The second floor has three similar but much shorter windows. A projecting street land to the left at second floor level was no doubt installed as part of the conservation area scheme.

The east gable is exposed at second floor level and is cement rendered, with a very small sash window (two-over-two, vertical glazing bars) to both the left and right. To the right-hand side at the rear there is a narrow and relatively shallow two-storey lean-to in painted brick. This may have been added around 1882 as part of the major renovation, though given that it contains a bathroom it may be early 20th century. The post-1882 valuations do not appear to make any reference to extensions. At ground floor level of the lean-to there is a window with a sash frame with four-over-two vertical and horizontal glazing bars. To the right of this window a tall rubble wall encloses the rear yard. At first floor level on the north face of the lean-to there is a sash window with one-over-two vertical glazing bar, and at ground floor level on the west face there is a panelled and glazed door. The rear façade of the main building to the left of the lean-to could not be seen from outside, though internal evidence suggests there is a window to each floor, with that at second floor level being much shorter; this portion of the façade appears to be cement rendered. The gabled roof is slated, with a rendered chimney stack to the east. Metal rainwater goods are fitted to the front; metal and PVC to the rear.

The property is of considerable historical interest. The first valuation of December 1834 records a large old house of similar dimensions to the present numbers 60 and 62 combined, occupied at that time by John Kenny and Alexander McLean, on the site of this building and its neighbour to the west. Later valuations record no major structural changes other than renovations, which suggests that what is seen today as number 62 is the eastern half of that earlier large dwelling. The combined property may have been one of the nine three-storey houses mentioned in the Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1831, and like much of Castle Street may date from around 1740 to 1770, when the town assumed much of its present form under the improving landlord Hugh Boyd. Significant sections of the internal detailing support an 18th-century date.

By 1859 the large house had been divided into two properties — it may originally have been so — with the present number 62 occupied by Margaret McBride and described as containing a shop and room off, two rooms on the first floor and two above, but noted as being in bad order and with an inferior finish. The building appears to have remained in a relatively poor state until around 1882, when a note in the valuation book states that the building had been improved since last valued and that it had been a ruin in 1860 and rebuilt since. The valuers' use of the word rebuilt does not indicate demolition and reconstruction — for demolitions they typically use the phrase house down — but rather a major renovation. This renovation probably involved the insertion of a new shop front, the fitting out of the shop interior, and the installation of new window frames throughout, though much of the original detailing was retained.

The tenants recorded in the valuation books are as follows: Margaret McBride until around 1864; Alexander McCollum from 1864 to 1879; Mr B. Black in 1879; David and Margaret Kennedy from 1881 to 1908, it being the Kennedys who appear to have carried out the renovations — a Miss M. Kennedy is listed as a grocer in Bassett's 1888 directory; Neal McCambridge from 1908 to 1912; William Scally from 1912 to around 1931 to 1935; and then a series of apparently relatively short-term tenants up to at least 1972. In the latter half of the 20th century the shop appears to have operated as a grocery and later as a woollen and draper's shop. The property was acquired by its present owner in 2001.

This is a well-preserved building whose understated shop front adds to its effectiveness and to the character of the surrounding street.