67-69 Castle Street, 25 Castle Street, Ballycastle, County Antrim, BT54 6AS

Two-storey terrace shop and restaurant with an apartment above, situated on the south side of Castle Street to the west of Ballycastle town centre. The building originated as a pair of houses, possibly dating from around 1840, though it has been extensively altered in the later 20th century through the introduction of a large modern shop front, the enlargement of most of the windows, and the modernisation of the interior.

The asymmetrical front elevation faces north. At ground floor level to the left is a large modern shop front comprising a recessed doorway with a mainly glazed double door, a second doorway with a similar single door, and a large plate glass picture window between them. To the right of the shop front is another window of similar size with a modern mullioned and transomed timber frame, also serving the shop area. Above the ground floor openings runs a recent timber signboard with raised lettering. At first floor level are two widely spaced windows with modern timber frames, which appear to be enlargements carried out in the 1950s or 1960s. A recent projecting signboard sits between these upper windows. The front façade is finished in painted roughcast.

To the rear, the left-hand (west) side of the elevation features a large full-height return extending southward, which abuts a single to one-and-a-half-storey outbuilding spanning the south end of the yard. To the right is a smaller full-height return abutting a single-storey outbuilding, which in turn connects to the outbuilding at the south end of the yard. Between the two returns is a relatively small first-floor projection. On the east face of the larger western return there is a very large window at ground floor level and another at first floor level, both with modern timber frames, as do all windows to the rear. The first-floor projection between the returns has a single window, with another window set within the ground-floor recess beneath it. On the west face of the smaller return there is a doorway with a modern partly glazed door at ground floor level. On the south face there is a large window to each floor. The returns, projection, and outbuildings are all finished in painted render. The gabled roof of the main original section of the building is covered in artificial slate. The roofs of the returns and the projection could not be inspected. The rainwater goods are largely PVCu.

Historical records indicate that an old two-storey thatched house occupied by John McMichael and Son, measuring 33 feet by 23½ by 14½ feet, was recorded on this site in the valuation of January 1835. By the valuation of 1859, however, two seemingly newer slated houses are noted, suggesting that the earlier thatched house was either demolished or thoroughly renovated and re-roofed. It is difficult to establish with certainty what happened to the original structure, but in provincial towns such as Ballycastle the tendency during this period was to reuse and adapt existing buildings rather than demolish them outright, meaning the present structure may retain fabric from before the 1830s.

In 1859 the leases of both houses were held by a Hugh McMichael, who lived in the larger dwelling to the east, measuring 7 yards by 8 yards. The valuers recorded this house's internal condition as bad; it contained a shop and kitchen with three small rooms above. The smaller house to the west was rented by a John Black, and had a relatively large two-storey bakehouse outbuilding to the rear.

Over the following decades the eastern house, later numbered 69, passed through a long succession of tenants. Hugh McMichael sublet the ground floor to a John Coughan in 1864, and by 1866 a Charles McCoughlan occupied the whole house. He was followed by Henry Butler (1871–77), Francis McNeill (1877–78), Margaret McNeill (1878), Daniel Mooney (1878–95), Patrick Mooney (approximately 1901–22), and Anthony McKinley (1922–23). The western house, meanwhile, was occupied from 1866 to 1888 by Hugh McMichael himself, after which both it and the lease of its neighbour passed to a James McMichael, presumably a relative. James remained until 1923, when the leases of both houses were taken up by William Johnstone. Johnstone himself moved into number 69, while number 67 was rented successively to Elizabeth O'Connor (1923–29), Walter Biggart (1930), and Cassie Delargy (1931–approximately 1933). From around 1933 to 1946 number 67 is listed as vacant, with a James Johnstone recorded as tenant from 1946 to approximately 1956. By 1959 both properties are noted as being in the hands of the representatives of William Johnstone, with a Joseph Douthart holding both in 1965. The following year the two houses and shops were treated as a single property by the valuers, with an A. McKinley recorded as resident from 1968 until at least 1972. The front façade is recorded as having modern windows and a shop front in the Environment and Heritage Service First Survey report of October 1972.

The building lies within a conservation area.