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

A plain, substantial three-storey terrace shop and house, likely built in the mid-18th century (c.1760–1779), which retains largely intact fabric both internally and externally. The building makes an important contribution to the character of Castle Street in Ballycastle town centre, where it stands on the north side close to the town centre.

The front façade is finished in painted lined render. On the ground floor to the left is a small, simple 19th-century shop front consisting of a panelled door with a plain rectangular fanlight and a plain single-light shop window to its left. The door and window are framed by simple pilaster jambs with a painted signboard overhead and projecting cornice. To the right of the shop front is a window with a plain sash frame; all other windows to the front follow this pattern. At the far right is a large segmental-headed carriage arch with timber tongue-and-groove double doors and a wicket gate. The first floor contains five sash windows, with slightly greater spacing between the third and fourth windows. A small metal projecting shop sign sits beside the second window. The second floor has five shorter windows, aligned directly above those below.

The rear elevation is constructed in random basalt rubble. At ground floor level on the left side, the rear end of the carriage arch is visible, its brick arch supporting the structure above. To the first floor is a sash window with a large box frame and Georgian-pattern panes (6/6), with brick patching around it. Directly above at second-floor level is a broader, squat window with double plain sash frames. To the immediate right is a relatively large gabled return, also in basalt, with a window and doorway to its west face. Above the return at half-landing level is a small four-pane window with Georgian-like panes; at the upper half-landing is a larger sash window with Georgian panes (6/6), both having bull's-eye panes with brick patching around the latter. To the right of the return, sash windows occur at first and second-floor levels as on the far left.

The carriage archway itself has rendered walls and a flat timber ceiling of broad boards, with a tongue-and-groove door to the centre of the west wall. The gabled main roof is slated, as is the return roof. Rendered chimney stacks sit to the west and right of centre of the main roof; a small rendered stack serves the gable of the return. Metal rainwater goods are fitted throughout.

Valuation records from December 1834 indicate that a large old house of similar dimensions, occupying the site of the present nos. 60 and 62, was then in occupation. The first valuation does not record major structural changes thereafter, suggesting that the western half of the combined 1834 dwelling is what survives today. This property may be one of the nine three-storey houses mentioned in the Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1835. Much of Ballycastle's built environment, including Castle Street structures, dates from c.1740–1770, when the town took on much of its present form under the improving landlord Hugh Boyd. Significant sections of internal detailing support a mid-18th-century dating.

By 1859, the large house had been subdivided into two properties. The eastern section (now no. 62) was occupied by Alexander McLean and contained a shop, kitchen, rooms in return, three rooms over the shop and three garrets. The valuers noted the premises was licensed, suggesting the shop was a spirit grocers or public house; the present owner states it was once an inn. However, Alexander McLean is listed as a painter and glazier in Slater's Directories for 1846 and 1856. The McLean family retained the property until 1920, when it passed to or was leased to Mary Anderson, who occupied it until 1939. It was then acquired by James Barton, whose descendants remain the owners.

The building is sited within a conservation area and is graded B1.