8-9 The Diamond, Ballycastle, Co Antrim, BT54 6AW

A three-bay end terrace building of two-and-a-half storeys, erected in the mid-19th century. The building has undergone incremental changes that have compromised much of its original character and architectural interest, and alterations to neighbouring properties have diminished the group value of the terrace.

The principal north-facing façade is three bays wide with a gabled roof and chimney stack. The ground floor contains a single four-panelled entrance door on each side, flanked by thin wood pilasters. To the east is a six-pane office window in wood, and to the west a four-pane office window, also in wood. A name fascia runs above the doors and windows. The first floor has three evenly-spaced double-hung sliding sash windows with twelve panes each, showing exposed sash boxes, with cills set on the ground floor name fascia. Above each first-floor window is a gabled dormer with a twelve-pane double-hung sliding sash window, also showing an exposed sash box but of reduced height. The dormers are gabled and sheeted with plastered masonry cheeks. The wall is smooth rendered with ruled lines, quoins at each end, and left unpainted. Four aluminium round downpipes serve the façade. The roof is laid with natural slates and features a wide gable chimney stack with a simple ridge tile, with no eaves overhang.

The wide south-facing gable contains windows arranged haphazardly across all three storeys: a twelve-pane double-hung sliding sash window and a six-pane double-hung sliding sash window at ground floor level, with protective metal grills; similar windows at first-floor and attic levels. A large soil pipe dominates the gable. A wide chimney stack centred on the gable has four low pots. The gable wall is smooth rendered, unpainted, and ruled, with slates that barely overhang.

The rear wall shows an irregular window arrangement with two windows at first-floor level and two smaller windows under the eaves, one of which is bricked up, plus a centrally-positioned window possibly at first-floor landing level. A high stepped boundary wall, reaching eaves level, separates this building from its neighbour. The rear elevation has no returns; the yard is enclosed by a timber fence. The roof is slated with one Velux-type window to the west and is gutterless. The wall is rendered and partially painted, and appears to have had a large shed with a Belfast-type roof abutting it at eaves level. The rear wall is in a dilapidated state.

A terrace of houses stood on this site from the mid-18th century. Comparison of the Ordnance Survey maps of 1832 and 1856 suggests the terrace was substantially rebuilt in the intervening period, with notably increased house depths. The building first appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1857, though a much smaller structure is recorded on the 1832 map. Until recently, this building housed the offices of the Nicholl coal and timber business. The Nicholl family, who operated a saw mill by the Tow River in Fairhill Street from the early 19th century, have remained resident there. The site may have formed part of the former Ballycastle, though remains of the castle still stood adjoining the church in 1855.

The principal façade was renovated in the 1990s. Dormers were added, and the shopfront has been altered twice in a traditional fashion, most recently in 2002. The building was subsequently purchased by the CWD (NI) Co Op, who erected a new shopping building in Station Street, removing a former terrace of houses.

The building stands as part of a short terrace forming one side of The Diamond.