2 Coastguard Cottages, Harbour Road, Ballintoy, Ballycastle, Co. Antrim, BT54 6NA

2 Coastguard Cottages, Harbour Road, Ballintoy

This is a mid-terraced, two-storey, two-bay coastguard dwelling built around 1873, forming part of a group of four surviving cottages (originally five) on an exposed clifftop site above Ballintoy Harbour on the North Antrim coast. The property incorporates what were originally two separate single-bay dwellings (formerly numbered 2 and 3), which were amalgamated into a single home during the late 20th century. It is considered the most complete of the group, retaining a high proportion of original historic fabric and detailing.

The building is rectangular on plan. The roof is covered in artificial slate and features a central, rebuilt brown brick chimneystack with a moulded cap and multiple terracotta pots. Rainwater goods are replacement metal gutters on a timber fascia. The walls are finished in painted roughcast render. Windows are appropriately detailed square-headed replacement timber sashes with six panes over six, fitted without horns, set in painted long-and-short tooled stone surrounds with smooth rendered reveals, tooled stone lintels, and painted stone cills. The principal north elevation carries two windows to each floor, equally spaced. Both gables are abutted by adjoining buildings.

The rear south elevation mirrors the north from its centre. Each entrance door is sheltered by a later lean-to porch addition of little historic interest — there are twin lean-to porch additions in total, reflecting the building's origin as two separate cottages. At ground floor level, reading from left, there is an original timber sheeted entrance door with a kickboard and original iron latch, followed by two windows, and to the right a further entrance door fitted with a four-pane fixed top panel, a sheeted lower panel, and original iron door furniture. Both doors have a transom light over. The first floor has two windows.

Retaining physical evidence of the defensive and regulatory functions of the early coastguard service, the group as a whole — including this cottage — features gun loops and panoramic lookout windows, giving it considerable significance in the context of the maritime history of this coastal area. Together with its neighbours, the property contributes to a group that is valued for its overall completeness, its contextual importance, and its historical and social interest.

The setting reinforces this significance. The cottages occupy an extremely exposed position on the clifftop above Ballintoy Harbour, dramatically visible from the headland yet surprisingly hidden from the harbour itself due to the steep terrain. To the north lies a narrow communal strip of lawn. To the east are a series of original individual kitchen garden plots, which speak to the self-sufficient domestic life of coastguard families stationed at rural postings. A small earlier watch house, which the present group replaced, survives immediately to the north.

To the south, along the south edge of a narrow linear yard, each cottage has a single-storey lean-to outbuilding and toilet. Number 2, having formerly been two cottages, has a pair of such outbuildings. These outbuildings have slated roofs and painted rendered walls, and have remained largely unchanged since at least the early 20th century. The rear yard is bounded by a rubble stone wall built to courses. The rear of the properties is connected by a raised rubble stone platform; that belonging to Number 2 has a cobbled surface, with an additional concrete platform spanning the distance between the two porches. This platform is bounded by dwarf barley-twist cast iron railings with ball finials. The shared northern boundary wall is rubble masonry with a soldier-coursed coping and retains a single tooled and dressed pier at its west end, topped with a pyramidal cap.

Historical background

A coastguard station was first established at Ballintoy in January 1822. The Water Guard — also known as the Preventative Boat Service — had been formed in 1809 as the sea-based arm of revenue enforcement, patrolling the shore and operating a series of watch houses along the coast. The Irish Coast Guard was formally established by the Board of Customs in 1822, replacing a number of earlier independent bodies including the Water Guard, Revenue Cruisers, and Riding Officers. Its initial role was revenue protection and coastal defence, prompted by the increasing activity of smugglers following the British Government's imposition of excise duties on a large range of goods.

An earlier, square-plan watch house is shown on the first and second edition Ordnance Survey maps of 1831–33 and 1853–58, just to the north of the present site. Samuel Lewis, writing in 1837, noted: "At Port Ballintoy there is a coast-guard station, which is one of eight stations that form the district of Ballycastle." This earlier watch house and its associated boathouse were valued at £1 5s in Griffith's Valuation of 1859, but the Annual Revisions covering 1864–78 record their replacement by the present group of buildings, newly built around 1873 and valued at £20. An Alexander G. Fullerton was noted as the lessor.

Following the Coastguard Service Act of 1856, control passed from the Board of Customs to the Admiralty. This brought a shift in role: with a decline in smuggling, the service functioned increasingly as an auxiliary to the Navy while maintaining some revenue protection and lifesaving duties. The 1856 Act enabled the acquisition of land and the enlargement of existing stations, with the Admiralty undertaking substantial new building work — spending £35,000 between 1856 and 1862 — resulting in a large number of purpose-built stations. As these Admiralty-era stations were required to be defensible from attack, the houses are thought to have been designed to be intercommunicating, with entrances kept to a minimum and gun loops strategically placed to defend entrances and windows. Watch rooms or watch houses were used for storing ammunition, signalling and observation equipment, served as a place from which orders were given, and from the 1920s housed the station telephone.

The present group first appears on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1900–06, captioned "Coastguard Station." Census records of 1901 show the buildings comprised five private dwellings, housing each of five coastguards and their respective families: Thomas Fox, Arthur Strange, John Jarrett, John Giles, and William Stokesbury. Each dwelling was noted as comprising four rooms — two on each floor — with two windows to the front. John Jarrett was listed as "Chief Boatman in charge," and his house (thought to be Number 1) was larger than the others, consisting of six rooms with four windows to the front elevation. Notably, all of the coastguards and much of their families were recorded as being from England, reflecting the practice of stationing men rather than appointing them from the local area.

Between 1907 and 1912, seventy-nine coastguard stations across Britain and Ireland were closed. The collective value of the Ballintoy buildings dropped to £17 10s in 1909 when one house was listed as vacant, and by 1910, though the value had recovered to £20, the whole group was recorded as vacant. By 1914, the vacant houses and outbuildings — listed as the "old Coastguard Station" — had been surrendered by the Admiralty and passed into the ownership of a George Fullerton. The station is understood to have ceased operating around 1908, though the buildings continued to be captioned "Coastguard Cottages" on the fourth edition Ordnance Survey map of 1931–37.

Following the transfer of control to the Board of Trade in 1923, the watch tower was separately valued at £4 in the Annual Revisions of 1916–30, and continued to be operated by the Board, likely as an auxiliary lookout. The First and Second General Revaluations (1935–57 and 1958–72) show the watch tower and store remained in use until 1937, after which the tower was converted to a dwelling and later amalgamated with the cottage to its west to form the present Number 4. When control of the coastguard service nationally passed to the Board of Trade in 1923, a number of Admiralty stations were closed or downgraded, with coastal observation and the co-ordination of lifesaving activities — including work alongside the RNLI — becoming the primary role. The number of regular coastguards had dramatically declined by 1931, and stations were increasingly manned by smaller numbers supplemented by auxiliary staff. By the mid-1970s it had been decided to sell off the remaining coastguard accommodation.

The present Number 2 corresponds to the original Numbers 2 and 3. In the First General Revaluation of 1935, each of those houses and their associated outbuildings was valued at £4 10s, with no subsequent change in relative value. Number 2 was owned by a Dorothy Scott, followed by an M. Heaney in the late 1950s; Number 3 was owned by a Florence Nevin until 1937, then by several others until a Joan Hardie in 1968, who also owned the adjoining Number 4 (the present Number 3). The two properties were amalgamated into a single dwelling during the late 20th century. The associated outbuildings have remained largely unchanged since at least the early 20th century.