7 Castle Street, Glenarm, Ballymena, Co Antrim, BT44 0AT

7 Castle Street is a relatively large but plain two-storey rendered terraced house, possibly built before 1832, situated on the north side of Castle Street in Glenarm. It retains sufficient period detail and contributes to the group value of the street to justify its listed status.

The front elevation faces south and is asymmetrical. On the ground floor, to the left, is a plain sheeted timber door with a shallow plain rectangular fanlight above it. To the right of the door are two 6-over-6 sash windows. On the first floor, directly above, are three sash windows of similar style but shorter in height. The front façade is finished in roughcast render. The roof is gabled and slated, with a rendered chimney stack to the west side of the ridge. Cast iron rainwater goods are fitted to the south elevation. The rear north elevation faces into an enclosed yard with high walls, and it was not possible to view this façade.

Castle Street is the shortest of Glenarm's four original main streets, running westward from the junction of Toberwine and Altmore Streets to the bridge over the Glenarm River, with Lower Castle Street branching off southward near the west end. The street follows a route of possible medieval origin, and was originally known as Bridge Street, a name that appears to have persisted until the mid-19th century. The earliest surviving leases in the Antrim Papers relating to plots and buildings along the street date from 1711. At least one building — the old parish church — stood at the south-west end as early as 1683, and the old 13th-century Bisset castle, probably a tower house, is reputed to have stood at the north-east end. The former courthouse, believed to have been standing since at least the 1750s, is thought to incorporate part of those ruins. The bridge at the west end of the street was erected in 1682, replacing a ford, but had to be largely rebuilt in 1713 following flood damage.

John O'Hara's map of 1779 — the earliest surviving plan of Glenarm — shows the street fully developed on both sides, with rows of properties extending to the same extent visible on the Ordnance Survey map of 1832. Evidence from the 1859 valuation suggests that most of the buildings shown in 1832 are those standing today, with the short terrace in Lower Castle Street appearing around 1835 to 1840. O'Hara's map clearly shows Castle Street's former importance as part of the main northward route from Larne, skirting the grounds of Glenarm Castle on the west side of the river. In the early 19th century this arrangement changed significantly: the old road was superseded by the new Coast Road and the new Glenarm Bridge, built in 1813, at the north end of the village, and the castle grounds were enclosed. This process, complete by the mid-1820s, appears to have gradually reduced the street's status. It is telling that while Lord Antrim's agent could be found living in Castle Street in the late 18th century, by the mid-1830s the agent had moved to the south end of the newly widened and considerably grander Altmore Street.

No. 7 is almost certainly the dwelling of the same dimensions recorded in the 1859 valuation as the relatively old house — possibly pre-1832 — then in the possession of a Michael Branagan. At that time there was a further two-storey dwelling situated to the rear, which is presumed now to survive as an outbuilding.