13 Main St., Bushmills, Co.Antrim

No. 13 Lower Main Street is a single-storey, three-bay, pebble-dashed mid-terraced house, built prior to 1832 and forming part of a terrace formerly known as 'Metal Row'. It sits on the west side of Lower Main Street at the northern end of Bushmills village centre, with views south to Market Square and the Bush River to the west.

The house has a rectangular plan with a pitched roof, now covered in fibre cement with black clay ridge tiles. A single unpainted rendered chimney stack sits at the south-west end with no pots visible, and uPVC rainwater goods are fitted throughout with timber fascias to both the main elevation and the rear extension. The pebble-dashed walls sit on a painted rendered plinth. The front elevation is divided from its neighbours by unpainted rendered quoins, and the windows are small timber top-hung units with painted stone sloping sills and unpainted rendered band surrounds. The slightly recessed central doorway contains a vertically sheeted timber door with a small rectangular vision panel featuring coloured decorative glazing and metal door furniture, set within a plain concrete architrave surround. Flanking the front door are basalt blocks, roughly hexagonal in shape and similar in character to the stones found at the Giant's Causeway.

To the rear, the north-west elevation overlooks a small yard. The main rear elevation has a single square-headed timber casement window to the right side. Abutting the left side of the rear is a single-storey extension with an artificial slate pitched roof and pebble-dashed walls, added during a renovation around 1999 which also included general repairs and the provision of a new kitchen and bathroom. The rear elevation of this extension contains a timber stable-style door to the left, the top half of which has a small rectangular vision panel, and two timber top-hung windows to the right. uPVC rainwater goods serve the rear elevation and extension.

The terrace sits immediately to the south of Woodville House Mill, a two-storey dwelling and former iron foundry. It was this foundry that gave Nos. 5–19 Lower Main Street the name 'Metal Row', as the terrace later housed nail makers and foundry and mill workers. The terrace was first recorded on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1832 and was built as part of the wider rebuilding and expansion of Bushmills led from the 1820s by the Macnaghten family, who had acquired the estate in 1787. The Townland Valuation of around 1834 records that No. 13 was occupied by a Mr. Archibald Dunlop and was valued at £2 and 19 shillings. The valuer described it as a thatched building of medium age in sound and good repair, measuring 30.6 feet by 19.6 feet and standing 7.3 feet in height. Griffith's Valuation of 1859 records that the house had been leased by Sir Edmund Macnaghten of Dundarave House to a Mr. William Carnegie, who remained at the property until around 1886 when it passed to William Carton, a local agricultural labourer. Its value had slightly decreased to £2 and 10 shillings by this point. The 1901 Census records the house as occupied by Thomas McKeague, an agricultural worker, who lived there with his wife and five children. By this time, the census building return confirms that the thatched roofs along the terrace had been replaced with slates, and No. 13 was recorded as a second-class dwelling with four inhabited rooms. The First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland, covering 1936 to 1957, records the house increasing in value to £3 and 10 shillings, with a number of tenants occupying it during this period. By the Second General Revaluation of 1956 to 1972, the house had been purchased outright by a Mr. William Gault and its value was further raised to £8.

The Ulster Architectural Heritage Society's 1972 guide to North Antrim described Bushmills' Main Street as 'a well scaled street, for the most part excellently painted and maintained', noting that 'many good doorways and shopfronts remain' and that 'the unity of the street frontages must be maintained', while Lower Main Street was described as 'a pleasant curving street facing the grounds of Dundarave'. No. 13 was listed in 1980 and falls within the Bushmills Conservation Area, designated in 1992 to protect a village that holds the highest number of listed buildings of any town or village in the north-east of Northern Ireland.

While the building has been altered over time — most notably through the addition of the rear extension and changes to roofing materials and rainwater goods — it retains its historic character through its simple proportions and modest scale. It has group value as part of the wider terrace at Nos. 5–19 Lower Main Street.