The Wayside Inn

The Wayside Inn was a former roadside pub, restaurant and fuel stop on Frosses Road outside Cloughmills, County Antrim. Sitting on the main route between Ballymena, Ballymoney, Coleraine and the North Coast, it was once a familiar stop for passing drivers as well as a local bar and food stop.

The old inn is now gone. After years of decline and abandonment, the building was demolished and the site was redeveloped as Centra Frosses Road with a Solo fuel forecourt.

Demolished site: The Wayside Inn no longer exists. The site has been redeveloped and is now occupied by a modern convenience store and fuel forecourt.

A Roadside Stop on Frosses Road

The Wayside Inn stood at 254 Frosses Road, Cloughmills, Ballymena. Old business listings record it as a bar, but the site was more than a simple public house. It also had a restaurant, off-licence, fast food takeaway, convenience shop and petrol pumps.

That mix of uses made it a proper roadside complex rather than just a village pub. Drivers heading between the North Coast and Ballymena could stop for fuel, food, drink or supplies, while locals knew it as a bar and meeting place on the old Frosses Road.

The building had the look of a classic rural roadside inn, with a broad frontage, timber detailing and a forecourt that once served passing traffic. By the time it was photographed for Urbex Hub, however, the pumps had gone, the site was overgrown, and the building had fallen into poor condition.

2001 Petrol Bomb Attack

In June 2001, The Wayside Inn was caught up in the wider pattern of sectarian attacks taking place across Northern Ireland at the time. A contemporary report stated that a petrol bomb was thrown through the window of the pub shortly before 1am on Wednesday 6 June.

The attack caused minor scorch damage to the seating area, but no injuries were reported.

Although the physical damage was limited, the incident forms part of the site’s later history and shows how even small rural pubs and businesses were affected by the tensions of the period.

Later Trading and Redevelopment Plans

The Wayside Inn continued to appear in council licensing records during the 2000s and early 2010s. In May 2007, Ballymoney Borough Council recorded a transfer of licence for the premises to Liam and Shaun Reid. In 2012, the same names appeared again in a licence renewal record for The Wayside Inn at 254 Frosses Road.

Planning records show that redevelopment had been considered long before the final demolition happened. In 2002, permission was granted for an extension to the public bar. In 2007, permission was granted for a much larger redevelopment of the commercial complex at 254 and 256 Frosses Road.

That 2007 scheme proposed a replacement filling station and shop, along with a two-storey replacement building containing a ground-floor public house, off-licence, licensed restaurant and ten first-floor guest bedrooms. The approval was later renewed in 2012, but the old inn remained in place and the proposed pub, restaurant and guest bedroom scheme was never built.

Road Changes and Abandonment

The Wayside Inn’s setting changed significantly when the A26 Frosses Road dualling scheme opened in June 2017. The new £55 million dual carriageway from Glarryford to the A44 Drones Road created a faster route through the area and altered the relationship between the old Frosses Road and passing traffic.

A later planning report described the original single carriageway as providing access to several by-passed properties, including the new petrol filling station site at 254 and 256 Frosses Road.

By the time Urbex Hub photographed The Wayside Inn, the building was derelict. Inside, the remains of the former bar and restaurant could still be seen, along with old fixtures, damaged rooms and traces of its roadside pub past.

By spring 2021, the former Wayside Inn and an associated outbuilding had been marketed at auction. Sale details available at the time listed the final price at £70,000, around £20,000 above the guide price.

Demolition and New Petrol Station

In January 2021, a new planning application was validated for the redevelopment of the site. The proposal covered land at 254 and 256 Frosses Road and included demolition of all existing buildings.

The approved scheme included a replacement petrol filling station, associated shop unit with deli, hot food sales and off-licence, as well as a fuel pump canopy, new access arrangements, parking and landscaping. Planning permission was granted on 11 October 2022.

By 2023, the former Wayside Inn had been demolished. The site was then rebuilt as a modern roadside services development.

Centra Frosses Road opened to the public on Tuesday 23 July 2024. The new 3,400 sq ft store includes food-to-go, a deli counter, coffee, seating, customer Wi-Fi and toilets. The site also features a Solo fuel forecourt.

The new store is operated by Oran McCloskey, while the Solo forecourt is linked to Andrew Hutchinson of Solo Petroleum. Around 25 full-time and part-time staff were reported to be employed across the site when it opened.

The Site Today

Today, there is no visible trace of the old Wayside Inn building. The pub, restaurant, off-licence and former forecourt have been replaced by a modern convenience store and fuel station serving the same busy road corridor.

The site’s function has not completely disappeared. Travellers still stop there for fuel, food and supplies, just as they once did when The Wayside Inn was open. What has changed is the character of the place. The old roadside inn, with its bar rooms, timbered frontage and local memories, has been replaced by a clean modern service stop.

For those who remember the old Wayside Inn, the photographs now form the main record of what once stood on this stretch of Frosses Road.