78 Castle Street, Ballycastle, Co Antrim, BT54 6AR

78 Castle Street is a narrow, three-storey terraced house of rendered construction, dating from the mid to later 18th century, now in use as a taxi office. It stands on the north side of Castle Street, close to Ballycastle town centre, and is part of a conservation area.

The building presents a plain rendered front elevation facing south, with an asymmetrical arrangement of openings. The ground floor has been altered with a modern shop front containing a partly glazed door and a large single-pane fixed light window. The first floor has two sash windows with plain frames, while the second floor has two smaller sash windows of similar design. The front elevation is finished in painted render, and the roof is slated with a metal rainwater system.

A two-storey return extends to the right (west) of the main block. On the north face of this return, the ground floor has a relatively small fixed light window with margin panes and coloured glass typical of the late Victorian period, and the first floor has a small plain sash window. The rear façade of the main building has a plain sash window at first-floor level and a more squat example at second-floor level. There is a rendered chimney stack to the east, shared with the adjacent number 80.

Historically, the building formed the western portion of a larger three-storey house recorded in the first valuation of December 1834, when it occupied a site encompassing the present numbers 78 and 80. The structure likely dates from around 1740–70, a period when Ballycastle assumed much of its present form under the improving landlord Hugh Boyd. By 1859, the large house had been divided into two separate properties. The present number 78 was then occupied by Alexander McHenry and contained a shop with a small adjoining room, two rooms above, and a garret. The building subsequently housed a succession of tenants through the 19th and 20th centuries, including Alexander McCollum Jnr (circa 1870–73), Archibald Coyle (1873–79), James Kenny (1879–80), William Nelson (circa 1880–93), Joseph Moore (1893), Eliza Cameron (circa 1893–1903), James McFarland (1903–13), Robert McWilliams (1913–circa 1921), James Hutchinson (1921–27), Charles McKay (1927–circa 1932), and Ellen McKay (circa 1932–57 and beyond). The property presently serves as a taxi office and was offered for sale as of May 2003.

The building retains historical interest as a local example of the townscape development of Ballycastle, though later alterations to the ground floor shop front detract from its original character.