Finn MacCool's, Bushmills

This pub, despite being Grade B Listed and in a conservation area, has been demolished.

A planning application LA01/2023/1093/F had been submitted 25/10/2023 for "Change of use from existing public bar [...] to form a range of 'guest inn' rooms". The initial plans showed the whole of the building being given over to accommodation, but revised ground floor plans dated 06/12/2023 showed reinstatement of the bar and retention of the lounge area. This planning was passed 19th December 2024, see https://planningregister.planningsystemni.gov.uk/application/678301

A subsequent application LA01/2025/0049/F was submitted 14/01/2025 for "Ancillary Breakfast room associated with approved Planning Application LA01/2023/1093/F & LA01/2023/1094/LBC including site works and associated parking and hard and soft landscaping to rear of site". These plans did not include the pub part and as of 20/05/2025 the decision is still pending, though that should be irrelevant.

Private Eye has reported in its 16th May 2025 edition that the "Causeway Coast and Glens borough council planning department was notified of the [planned] demolition on 10th April [2025] but the building was destroyed before staff arrived to inspect it".

We don't know for certain when the pub became closed. The last reviews were in early 2024 but these did not mention the pub part, just the rooms, so the pub may have been closed by then, The pub had definitely been open in October 2023.