9 High St., Cushendall, Co.Antrim

No. 9 High Street is a terraced single-bay, three-storey rendered house built around 1830, situated on the north side of High Street in Cushendall village, County Antrim. It sits between No. 7 High Street and No. 11 High Street, directly opposite the Curfew Tower at the central crossroads of the village. It shares group value with No. 7 next door, and together the terrace forms an important part of the historic village centre setting.

The building is L-shaped on plan, facing southwest, with a full-height rear return. The roof is pitched and covered in natural slate with black clay ridge tiles, cast-iron guttering on drive-through iron brackets to a rendered eaves course, and a cast-iron downpipe. The external walls are finished in painted ruled-and-lined render, with painted rusticated render quoins to the left side only. Window openings are square-headed with painted concrete sills and replacement sliding timber sash windows with angled horns and exposed sash boxes; the rear windows have been replaced with top-hung timber casement windows.

The single-bay front elevation rises three storeys. The ground and first floors each have a 6-over-6 sliding timber sash window, and the second floor has a 3-over-3 sash. To the right of the front elevation is a square-headed door opening fitted with a replacement timber panelled door and a rectangular overlight. The door opens onto a raised concrete platform approached by three concrete steps, shared with the adjoining No. 7. The northwest side is abutted by No. 11 High Street and the southeast side by No. 7. The full-height gabled rear return has a lean-to single-storey extension in the re-entrant angle and a single flush timber door with a glazed panel, opening into a small paved yard. The building forms part of a continuous terrace lining the northeast side of High Street on a steep gradient, with a small paved front area enclosed by steel railings set on a low rendered plinth wall with a concrete coping.

The majority of buildings along Cushendall's High Street were erected in the first half of the 19th century by the landowning Turnly family. Francis Turnly, the proprietor of Cushendall, had travelled to China in 1796 where he accumulated a fortune of around £75,000. In 1801 he used this money to purchase the estate of Newtownglens from the Richardson family for £24,000, subsequently renaming the settlement Cushendall. At the time of purchase the village consisted of little more than a number of insignificant cabins, a mill and a bridge. Turnly — described by architectural historian C. E. B. Brett as an eccentric character who "effected extraordinary improvements in buildings and roads on his property" — developed the settlement into a coastal resort in response to the growing number of tourists travelling through the area on their way to the Giant's Causeway, with the construction of hotels and numerous commercial properties.

Nos. 7 and 9 High Street were originally built as a single property. The building was depicted on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1832, though whether it appeared in the Townland Valuations of 1834 is unknown due to the loss of the Townland Valuation Town Plan for Cushendall. Griffith's Valuation of 1859 records the combined property valued at £18 and 5 shillings and notes it was in use as a local hotel for travellers along the coastal road. At that time the hotel was leased by Daniel Jamison — a local rate collector who resided at Nos. 13–15 High Street — to a Ms. Jane Martin.

The building continued as a hotel until around 1866, when it was converted into a private dwelling occupied by a Mr. John McDonnell. Around 1884 it passed to a Mr. Alexander McAuley, but by 1886 the building was described as "going to ruin" and its valuation was reduced to £8 and 10 shillings. The Annual Revisions suggest that only a portion of the house was occupied between the 1880s and 1922, when it was restored and converted into a bakery by Messrs. Thomas Crowley and Charles McLernon.

The subdivision of Nos. 7–9 into their current arrangement as two separate three-storey single-bay dwellings is recorded in the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland, carried out between 1936 and 1957. At that time the bakery operated from No. 7, while No. 9 was occupied as a dwelling and shop by Charles McLernon, valued at £17 and 10 shillings. McLernon continued to live at No. 9 until 1951, when the building became a dental surgery operated by a Ms. Geraldine O'Neill. By the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72) it had reverted to use as a private dwelling, valued at £17 and 10 shillings and occupied by the Black family.

In 1972 the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society described High Street as "an outstandingly attractive street, of quite exceptional merit and character, climbing very steeply indeed from the crossing of the main street to Court McMartin, almost every building in it of individual merit apart from the value of the group as a whole; the roofs, gables, doors and windows rise in an irregular staircase up the hillside." Nos. 7–9 were specifically described as "a fine three-storey pair, probably of about 1800." The buildings along High Street were included in the Cushendall Conservation Area in 1975 — only the second conservation area to have been designated in the province, described as "testimony itself to the special qualities of the village" — and in that year Cushendall was also selected as one of Northern Ireland's four pilot schemes for conservation during the European Architectural Heritage Year. No. 9 High Street was subsequently listed in 1976.

In 1989 the building underwent an extensive renovation which included the re-slating of its roof in natural slate, the installation of cast-iron rainwater goods, and the fitting of new timber window frames. Despite these internal modern alterations and the replacement of windows to the rear, No. 9 remains an integral component of the terrace as it steps up the hill of High Street.