6 Main Street, Cushendun, Co.Antrim

No. 6 Main Street is a modest two-storey, two-bay house in the village of Cushendun, County Antrim, constructed between 1832 and 1857, most likely around 1840–1859. It was built at the same time as its immediate neighbours, nos. 8 and 10 Main Street, and predates the seven cottages of The Square that now sit adjacent to it. The architect is unknown. The building is finished in white-painted roughcast render and has a rectangular plan form, with its principal elevation facing north-east onto the junction of Main Street and Bay Road, directly overlooking the coast. It sits within a Conservation Area and a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

The building has substantial group value alongside its neighbours. Nos. 6, 8, and 10 Main Street are linked at each gable end by a low white-painted rendered wall fitted with vertically sheeted timber gates giving access to the rear yards of each property. No. 6 is situated at the corner plot where Main Street meets Bay Road, and is adjoined to the south-east by No. 7, The Square, whose roof overhangs and protrudes into the north-east elevation of No. 6. The principal elevation sits perpendicular to The Square.

The external walls are white-painted roughcast render set on a plinth painted in a contrasting colour. The pitched roof is covered in natural slate with terracotta ridge tiles, and there are two chimney stacks positioned at mid-ridge, each slated on three sides, with black-painted clay pots and stepped cornices. The eaves have a timber fascia with half-round cast-iron guttering discharging to circular-section downpipes.

The fenestration is irregular. On the ground floor of the principal north-east elevation, there is a small tripartite timber sliding sash window to the left, not aligned with the bays above, and a gabled entrance porch to the right, added by at least 1987, which contains a narrow multi-pane Georgian-style window to the north-east elevation beneath a pitched slated roof. The entrance is accessed via a tarmac footpath from the south-east side, through a vertically sheeted timber door with metal door furniture. At first floor level there are two larger 8/8 timber sliding sash windows with horns, set on painted sills. All windows are in the small-pane Georgian style with exposed painted box frames and horns, expressing a cottage character in keeping with the wider streetscape.

The south-east elevation is adjoined to No. 7, The Square; the upper section of this elevation rises above the roofline of No. 7 and is finished in white-painted roughcast render, topped by a chimney stack. The south-west side elevation overlooks a modest concrete and grassed rear yard, enclosed to the south-east by the elevation of No. 7 and to the north-west by a high timber-boarded fence; access is via a rendered gateway at the north-west corner of the building. The rear elevation is abutted by a rear return built to half-landing height, topped by a rendered chimney stack. To the right of the rear elevation there are two 6/6 timber sliding sash windows, one at ground floor and one at first floor level. The south-east elevation of the rear return has a single doorway with a painted timber panelled door with translucent glazed top panes. The north-west elevation is of white-painted roughcast render and is largely blank at the main elevation; the rear return has two multi-pane casement windows at ground floor level and a single small casement window at half-landing height.

The building carries considerable local historic and social importance. The village of Cushendun developed from the early 19th century as part of a broader transformation of the Antrim Coast, prompted in part by the cutting off of mainland European travel during the Napoleonic Wars, which made Ireland a popular destination for British tourists. The construction of the Coastal Road between 1832 and 1842 opened up the previously isolated Glens of Antrim, turning small coastal settlements such as Cushendun into popular seaside resorts. Nos. 6–10 Main Street were built during this period of initial development and are contemporary with the laying out of the coastal road. Griffith's Valuation of 1859 records No. 6 as originally valued at £4 and 10 shillings and as being leased to tenants by Edmund McNeill of Cushendun House, now demolished. The 1911 Census of Ireland recorded the building as the village post office, occupied by Neal O'Neill, a local farmer; the census return described it as a second-class dwelling and sub-post office with four rooms and a fowl house as its sole outbuilding. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57), the house had increased in value to £5 and 5 shillings and was occupied by a Mr. Arthur Hamilton. Ownership of nos. 6–10 Main Street passed to the National Trust in 1954. The Hamilton family remained at the address until 1967, when the house was occupied by a Mr. Daniel C. Kinney; by the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72), the value stood at £11. No. 6 continued to be used as a post office until the 1970s, when that function transferred to No. 3 Main Street, after which the building became solely a private dwelling. In 1972 the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society described nos. 6–10 Main Street as "three older small two-storey white-washed houses of character." The buildings were listed in 1980, the same year they were included in the Cushendun Conservation Area.