5 North Street, Ballycastle, Co Antrim, BT54 6BN

5 North Street, Ballycastle, is a mid-to-late 19th century building (circa 1860-1879) which forms the right-hand portion of a unified two-house block on North Street. It makes an important contribution to the character of the surrounding area.

The building is part of a five-bay-wide, three-storey composition with a common arched coachway in the central bay. This house occupies the right-hand side of the block. The main entrance faces north-east.

The entrance elevation to the right of the shared archway is two bays wide at ground floor, three bays wide at first floor and two bays wide at second floor. The walls are smooth rendered and painted with a projecting plinth, corbel course and projecting eaves course. The roof is covered in Bangor blue slates in regular courses, with a chimney to the right-hand gable.

Windows throughout are rectangular timber sliding sash, one-over-one, with horns, set in plain reveals and with projecting painted stone cills. The doorway to the right of the coachway is a rectangular timber panelled door with fanlight, set in a raised pilastered surround with frieze and cornice. To the right of the doorway, adjacent to the coachway, is a later modern two-pane shop front incorporating a glazed panelled door.

The coachway, shared with No. 4, has a segmental arch with raised block surrounds and a shared keystone surmounted by a shared name panel inscribed 'Strandview'.

The rear elevation is three storeys tall, two bays wide at ground floor to the left of the common coachway, two bays wide at first floor and three bays wide at second floor, which includes a room two floors above the common coachway. The roof is of Bangor blue slates in regular courses with modern PVC gutters and downpipes. The walls are rendered with wet dash finish. Windows are modern rectangular fixed lights with top-hung vents and concrete cills.

Within the common coach archway, the ceiling is flat and plain plastered with plastered side walls; at the left-hand end is a modern rectangular flush timber door. Below ceiling level are four iron cross beams.

Projecting from the ground floor is a single-storey rear return with similar walling to the main block and a monopitch roof of modern pre-formed metal decking. This return has PVC rainwater goods and features a modern open-tread wooden fire escape stairway running along its side, across its roof, and giving access to the second floor of the main house. The side of the return contains two modern PVC windows and one flush timber door.

The rear return abuts an original two-storey outbuilding at the rear of the site. This outbuilding has a roof of Bangor blue slates in regular courses, PVC gutter and downpipe, and a rendered wet-dashed wall. It contains one window to each floor: the first floor has an original small rectangular timber four-pane window with stone cill, whilst the ground floor has a modern PVC window.

The building stands within a built-up area of the town in a terrace of shops and houses, facing directly onto the pavement with a view toward the sea. The precise date of construction is not known, but the block of two houses appears to be a mid-to-late 19th century rebuilding of an earlier property or properties.