County Primary School, 43 Quay Road, Ballycastle, Co Antrim, BT54 6BJ

County Primary School, 43 Quay Road, Ballycastle, is a well-maintained example of a 1930s school building designed in neo-classical style. Built in 1933 as a technical school, it later became a high school after the Second World War and was converted to a primary school in 1960. The building demonstrates good detailing throughout, executed in its original form, and has been adapted to accommodate changes in educational use with minimal adjustment to its fabric.

The school is a single-storey structure, nine bays wide, with a symmetrical entrance elevation comprising a central five-bay wide section flanked by two-bay wide pedimented projecting wings. The entrance is placed at the centre and features a shallow distyle portico with Tuscan columns supporting a horizontal frieze, cornice and additional setback entablature above. The door opening has respond pilasters on each side with rusticated reveals, and a pair of tall doors with moulded and fielded panels. On either side of the portico, the walls are articulated in bays with pilasters. Each bay contains a vertical window of twelve panes; original windows have been replaced with PVC examples. Above the pilasters runs a frieze band beneath a corbel course and gutter. The projecting wings are similarly treated with bold moulded pediments. Outer and inner corners feature clasping pilasters or reverse arrangements. The walls are smooth rendered and painted with a plinth base. The roof is covered in natural slates with plain ridge tiles, and the pediments have broad barge stones.

The side elevations employ similar wall treatment and fenestration, with windows coupled in each bay. The pedimented wings are expressed at the rear in like manner, with the double-banked corridor of classrooms accordingly set back. Small additions to toilets on each side have been made with reasonable care. The double-banked classroom rear block terminates in a pair of pedimented gables with a flat roof between. These gables are windowless but articulated with pilasters in the established manner. A porch has been added to this rear section, with a series of temporary buildings beyond.

Two chimney stacks rise from the ridge of the entrance block. The school is set back from the footwalk with a boundary wall, piers and railings. The floor level lies below footwalk level, accessed by a downward flight of steps. The front is landscaped with pleasing lawn, shrubs and small trees, with both pedestrian and vehicle access provided. To the rear, most ground is hard play area, bounded on three sides by a handsome high handmade redbrick wall, which represents the remains of a walled garden. The building line is aligned with the adjacent number 45 to the north-east.

The school was constructed within the walled garden of Hugh Boyd's Manor House. The enclosing garden walls may represent remnants of walled gardens established by the Boyd family, who developed Ballycastle in the eighteenth century. The listing extends to the school building, front boundary wall and railing, and garden walls.