Northern Area Plan 2016
Moyle District: Ballycastle

Ballycastle is a modest sized market town, providing a good range of services for its own population. It has an extensive rural hinterland and has retained a remarkably robust retail and commercial centre. It is also the administrative centre for the District and its schools serve the greater part of the area. The town had a permanent population of 5,073 by 2001, although, in the summer especially, the population is swelled by a considerable number of additional staying visitors. The town lies within the Antrim Coasts and Glens AONB and adjacent to the Causeway Coast AONB. It has a very attractive and high quality visual setting.

Within the Regional Development Strategy (RDS) Spatial Framework for Rural Northern Ireland, Ballycastle is recognised as a Local Hub, situated between the Strategic Natural Resources of the Antrim Coast and Glens and the Causeway Coast. Ballycastle is linked to Rathlin Island, the only inhabited off shore island in the Region, by a regular ferry service. Ballycastle is 30 kilometres east of Coleraine, 90 kilometres north of Belfast and 45 kilometres north of Ballymena with good road links to the Northern Corridor.

The town has grown considerably in the past 20 years, with more than a 50% increase in the resident population. There has also been an increase in its holiday population with a rapid growth in the number of second homes in the past decade, following the earlier growth of caravan parks. The harbour, which was enlarged and modernised in the mid 1990s, is capable of accommodating a possible reinstatement of the Campbelltown ferry.

In the 15 years from mid 1988 to mid 2004, a total of 1,166 new dwellings were completed in the town. This is more than twice the rate of growth anticipated by the North East Area Plan for the period from 1988 to 2002. The relatively high rate of house construction has resulted in a considerably larger permanent population than anticipated, and rapid growth in the number of second homes. By 2001 there were an estimated 387 second homes in the town (17% of all dwellings). Most residential expansion that has taken place in the past 15 years has been on green field sites along the western fringe of the town, particularly major developments between Ramoan Road and Whitehall Road on both sides of Leyland Road. There has also been a considerable amount of brown-field development since 1988, with 229 dwellings completions - 20% of the total.

The town centre retains the atmosphere of a small Irish market town with a remarkably well preserved historic town centre, including a notable collection of traditional shop fronts, and listed buildings. There was an early flourish of industrialisation in Ballycastle during the mid eighteenth century, based upon cheap coal and other locally available raw materials such as kelp. However, this industry subsequently declined and the town developed as a market town and resort during the nineteenth century.