64-66 Castle Street, Ballycastle, Co Antrim, BT54 6AR

A relatively plain two-storey terrace building, originally a house and possibly constructed in the mid to later 18th century, now functioning as a shop. The property stands on the north side of Castle Street close to Ballycastle town centre. The building is much altered but retains value as part of the streetscape.

The asymmetrical front elevation faces south. To the centre-right is a large modern shop front consisting of a central partly glazed door with fanlight flanked by large single-pane square windows with roller shutters. Above this is a traditional painted signboard. To the left is a broad doorway with timber double doors. The first floor has three evenly spaced windows with plain sash frames; a recent projecting metal signboard is positioned between the first and second windows, and neon Christmas decoration between the second and third. The front elevation is finished in painted render.

The rear of the building is completely covered by an extremely large two-storey gabled extension added in the 1950s, originally used as a dance hall. The gabled roof is slated to the front and features two flat-roofed dormers with relatively recent casement windows and what appear to be painted timber sides. A rendered chimney stack stands to the east, with metal rainwater goods to the front.

The first valuation of December 1834 records an old house of similar dimensions on this site, then occupied by Neil McNeill, Miss Hill and John Sharpe. As later valuations record no major changes to the property structure, it can be assumed that the house documented in 1834 is the building seen today. The property may be one of the 127 two-storey houses mentioned in the Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1835 and likely dates from approximately 1740-70, when Ballycastle assumed much of its present form under the improving landlord Hugh Boyd.

By 1859 the building had been divided into two properties. The eastern property (no. 66) was slightly larger, containing a shop and room with two rooms above and a garret, plus a return of two rooms. The western property (no. 64) had a shop and kitchen below, two rooms above and a garret. The former was occupied by James Taylor and the latter by Jane Adams. Property no. 64 saw a succession of tenants including John Lally (1865-74), Mary McCambridge (1874-76), James McMullen (1876), Mary McCoy (1879-80), Henry McAuley (1880-81), James Taylor (1881-92), John Bonar (1892-1902), Samuel McCausland (1902-21), Elizabeth McCaughan (1921-22), Thomas McFadden (1922-26), Rose McFadden (1926-c.1931), Charles McGoldrick (c.1931-37), John Morton (1937-39) and Francis Coyles (1941-52). Property no. 66 passed from James Taylor to Denis McAuley (1881-1906), Samuel McCausland (1906-15), James Doherty (1915-c.1921), and Elizabeth McCaughan (c.1922-52).

In 1952 both properties were acquired by John Wilson, who reunited them as a restaurant and built the large rear extension as a dance hall. Wilson occupied the property until 1961, when the present owner acquired it and converted the restaurant to a shop. The shop was later integrated with the adjacent property to the east (no. 68). According to the present owner, one former occupant, Mr Chambers (possibly the father of former leaseholder Elizabeth McCaughan), is buried in the rear yard.