99 Main Street, Bushmills, Co.Antrim

99 Main Street, Bushmills, County Antrim, is a two-storey, two-bay, mid-terrace house originally built between 1834 and 1857, with the appearance of the current building largely resulting from a major refurbishment — or possibly a complete reconstruction — carried out in around 1926. It sits on the west side of Main Street on the southern edge of the village centre, with the Bush River to the west, and forms part of a coherent terrace row that also includes Nos 95, 97 and 101–103 Main Street.

The building has a rectangular plan with a painted rendered front elevation set on a painted rendered plinth, with painted corner quoins to the right side. The pitched roof is covered in replacement natural slate with black clay ridge tiles, and there is a shared unpainted rendered chimney stack to the north-west side. At ground-floor level the principal north-east-facing elevation has a single entrance doorway with a replacement timber and glazed door to the left, alongside a replacement coupled 1/1 timber sliding sash window with double-glazed units. A single 1/1 timber sliding sash window sits on the first floor above. Half-round uPVC guttering to the front discharges to a cast-iron circular downpipe. The south-east and north-west sides are adjoined to neighbouring properties Nos 97 and 101–103 Main Street. To the rear, the south-west elevation is abutted by a modern rendered two-storey pitched-roof extension that steps down to a single-storey lean-to extension. The rear walling is of smooth unpainted rendered finish, with two uPVC windows at first-floor level to the two-storey extension and a pair of uPVC half-doors to the single-storey extension, with uPVC rainwater goods throughout the rear elevations.

The history of the site reflects the broader development of Bushmills as a settlement. The village was a significant place before the end of the 18th century but was extensively rebuilt from the 1820s onwards by the MacNaghten family of Bushmills House, who had acquired the estate in 1787. The detailed Townland Valuation Town Plan of around 1834 and the Townland Valuations of 1835 record that a first-class-C structure — that is, a slated building that was old and out of repair — stood on the site of Nos 97–103 Main Street in the early 19th century. This building was subsequently demolished and replaced with the current houses, which were first depicted on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1857. Griffith's Valuation of 1859 recorded No. 99 as initially valued at £1 and leased by Hugh McNaul, a prominent local landowner, to a Ms Margaret McKee. Occupants changed frequently over the following four decades, and by the turn of the 20th century the house was leased by a Mr Samuel Dobbin to Alexander McAlister, a local labourer. The 1901 Census of Ireland described it as a second-class dwelling of five rooms with a shed as its sole outbuilding. The Ordnance Survey Town Plan of 1902 continued to show the house in its original form as a simple terraced structure.

The Annual Revisions records document the major refurbishment (or possibly complete reconstruction) of around 1926, which included the installation of a ground-floor shopfront and resulted in the rateable value of the property rising to £8. Alexander McAlister had continued to occupy the site until this refurbishment, after which Joseph McCloskey became the occupant. The First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57) raised the value further to £13 and 10 shillings and noted that McCloskey purchased the property outright in around 1952. He remained at No. 99 until at least the 1970s, by which time the total rateable value under the Second General Revaluation (1956–72) stood at £19 and 10 shillings. A 1972 Ulster Architectural Heritage Society guide described the buildings along Main Street in general terms as forming "a well-scaled street" with "many good doorways and shopfronts," noting that while no building apart from the former Courthouse merited individual mention, "the unity of the street frontages must be maintained."

No. 99 was listed in 1980 and subsequently included in the Bushmills Conservation Area, designated in 1992 to preserve the built heritage of a village that holds the highest number of listed buildings in the north-east of Northern Ireland. An extensive renovation carried out in around 1982 included the restoration of the roof, window frames and entrance doors, the removal of the shopfront (which had been installed in around 1926), and the construction of the kitchen and bathroom extension to the rear. The building retains special architectural and historical interest, particularly in terms of its style, proportion, age, authenticity and local historic importance, and as part of a group of similarly proportioned terraced houses along Main Street. Some alterations to the external fabric — particularly to the rear — are considered to detract from the building's overall integrity.