'McKeague', 53 Castle Street, Ballycastle, County Antrim, BT54 6AR

McKeague's Public House, 53 Castle Street, Ballycastle

This is a two-storey terraced public house, originally built as a dwelling house and probably dating from the mid-18th century, most likely around the 1740s as part of Hugh Boyd's redevelopment of Ballycastle town. The pub front was added in the late 19th century, and there have been further alterations to the rear in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The building sits on the south side of Castle Street, to the west of Ballycastle town centre, and lies within a conservation area.

Front Elevation

The asymmetrical front elevation is finished in painted plain render. The pub front occupies the left-hand portion of the ground floor and is its most architecturally significant feature. It comprises a timber sheeted door with a rectangular fanlight, and to the right a large window with a four-pane timber frame and acid-etched glazing; both openings are framed by matching moulded pilaster jambs. To the right of the pub door is a former house doorway, now disused, fitted with a panelled timber door, rectangular fanlight, and the same style of jambs. Above the door and window runs a painted signboard with a projecting cornice. To the right of the pub front are two relatively small windows with horned timber sash frames and plate glass glazing. At first-floor level there are five identical windows, unevenly spaced. Between the second and third windows there is an internally illuminated projecting pub sign, and between the third and fourth windows a projection-illuminated Christmas decoration. Rainwater goods to the front are cast iron.

Rear Elevation

The rear of the building has been significantly altered. Much of the ground floor of the rear elevation is taken up by a large, modern-looking single-storey flat-roofed extension, which to the north-west merges with a two-storey gabled projection or return that is probably considerably older. To the west of this is another, smaller, slightly older-looking extension. The rear façade of the main section of the building is only visible in the narrow gap between these two large extensions; at ground floor there is a doorway, and at first floor there are windows to the left and right of the projection. The south face of the larger extension has a doorway and window, while the west face has a doorway and a small window. The west extension has a doorway to its east face, and there is a further doorway at first-floor level in the south-facing gable of the projection or return. All openings to the rear have either modern timber doors or modern timber frames. The rear is finished in painted roughcast, with rough unpainted cement render to the western extension. Rainwater goods to the rear are uPVC.

Roof

The main section of the building has a gabled, slated roof with two Velux windows to the rear and a rendered ridge chimneystack at the east end. The large eastern extension has a felt-covered flat roof. The western extension has a shallow pitched roof covered in corrugated iron. The roof covering of the gabled projection could not be seen.

Outbuildings

In the yard to the rear stand the badly dilapidated remains of a rubble and brick-built one-and-a-half-storey outbuilding, with a small single-storey shed attached to its north gable.

Historical Background

A house of similar dimensions to the present main section of the building — recorded as 36 feet by 27 feet by 17½ feet — appears in the first valuation of January 1835. Because later records refer only to improvements rather than demolition or major structural change, it is reasonable to conclude that the building standing in 1835 is substantially the same as the one seen today. The 1835 valuers considered the house already old at that date, suggesting an 18th-century construction, possibly from Hugh Boyd's redevelopment of the town in the 1740s.

The occupant recorded in 1835 was a Mrs McKeever. By the time of the second valuation in late 1859, a John O'Neill — possibly the surgeon of the same name listed in Slater's 1856 Directory — was in residence, with a Mrs Mary Edgar as immediate lessor. The valuers described the building as being in middling order, containing a shop and three apartments on the ground floor and four rooms and garrets above, with the part including a shop sublet but sharing a common entrance. The shop appears to have been sublet to a William Sharpe. Sometime between 1859 and 1862 the building was improved. In 1871 a James McBride became tenant, occupying the whole property, followed by Andrew Verdon from 1873 to 1876, and then Jane Verdon, who appears to have remained until 1922. The building was functioning as a public house at least as early as 1888, when Jane Verdon is listed as a spirit retailer in Bassett's Directory for that year. In 1922, the ancestor of the present owner acquired the lease.

The western rear extension probably incorporates the fabric of a mid-19th-century outbuilding — it corresponds to a structure shown on various Ordnance Survey maps of the period — but it has been substantially altered in recent times. The large single-storey extension to the east is a more recent addition.