13-15 Castle Street, Glenarm, Ballymena, Co Antrim, BT44 0AT

13–15 Castle Street, Glenarm

This is a relatively large two-storey, double-fronted rendered terrace house, probably built before 1832, making it one of the older surviving domestic buildings on Castle Street. It was divided into two separate properties for most of the 20th century but has since been reunited as a single dwelling. It sits on the north side of Castle Street, with its principal elevation facing south.

The front (south) elevation is asymmetrical. Slightly left of centre is a timber-sheeted door with a plain five-pane fanlight above it. At ground floor level there are three six-over-six Georgian-paned sash windows: two to the right and one to the left, the latter set at a slightly higher level than the others. The first floor has three matching six-over-six sash windows, two positioned to the right and one to the far left. The front elevation is finished in smooth lined render and has an eaves course. The roof covering is natural slate, with two plain brick chimneystacks positioned to the left and right of the ridge, both of recent construction. Cast iron rainwater goods serve the front elevation.

The rear (north) elevation is finished in roughcast render and also has an eaves course. At ground floor level there is a door to the left and three timber windows to the right; the first floor has two further timber windows. All of the rear doors and windows are modern. PVC rainwater goods serve the rear. To the east side of the rear is the masonry shell of a kitchen extension that appears to have been an abandoned project. In the east side of the rear yard there is a single-storey outbuilding constructed in random rubble with modern doors and windows. The interior throughout has modern detailing.

Castle Street is the shortest of Glenarm's four principal original streets, running westward from the junction of Toberwine and Altmore Streets to the bridge over the Glenarm River, with Lower Castle Street branching southward near the western end. The street formed part of the old main road from Larne, a route of possible medieval origin that wound northwestward through The Vennel, across the bridge, and on towards what is now the Straidkilly Road. The earliest surviving leases within the Antrim Papers relating to plots and buildings along the street date from 1711. At least one building — the old parish church — was already standing at the southwest end of the street (where the former schoolhouse now stands) as early as 1683. A 13th-century castle associated with the Bisset family, probably a tower house, is reputed to have stood at the northeast end of the street, and the still-surviving former courthouse — believed to have been standing at least since the 1750s — is thought to incorporate part of its ruins. The bridge at the west end of the street was erected in 1682, replacing an earlier ford, but had to be largely rebuilt in 1713 following flood damage. The street was originally known as Bridge Street, a name that appears to have persisted until the mid-19th century.

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 corresponding to those shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1832. Evidence from the 1859 valuation suggests that most of the buildings recorded in 1832 are those standing today, with a short terrace in Lower Castle Street appearing around 1835–40. O'Hara's map clearly illustrates Castle Street's former importance as part of the main northward route from Larne, the road skirting the grounds of Glenarm Castle on the west side of the river. In the early 19th century this arrangement was fundamentally altered: the old road was superseded by the new Coast Road and a new Glenarm Bridge, built in 1813, at the north end of the village, and the grounds around the castle were enclosed. This process was complete by the mid-1820s and appears to have led to a gradual decline in the street's status. Whereas a notable figure such as Lord Antrim's agent could be found living in Castle Street in the late 18th century, by the mid-1830s the agent had relocated to the south end of the newly widened and considerably grander Altmore Street.

The house at numbers 13–15 is almost certainly the dwelling of the same dimensions recorded in the 1859 valuation as a relatively old property in the possession of a John Dunne and occupied by a Reynold McCool. Valuation maps show that the building was divided into two properties at some point between 1907 and 1935, remaining so until approximately the 1980s. The west gable of the property shows physical evidence that the terrace once extended further to the west; map evidence indicates that this western portion was demolished prior to 1859 and possibly even before 1832. The two dwellings now standing immediately to the west were built in 1984.

The property is vernacular in character and sits within a conservation area. It does not meet the criteria for statutory listing.