Church of The Immaculate Conception (RC)

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Small, plain, single-storey RC church of 1827, with later vestry and porch additions, extensively renovated in 2003. The church is set in a secluded location on high ground to the west of Glenshesk Road, roughly 3.5 miles east of Armoy.

The building consists of a simple rectangular gabled structure, with a the gabled porch to the N and the vestry to the SE. The façade is finished in painted lined render with moulded ‘in-out’ quoins and the roof is slated.

The main entrance is to the W face of the porch, and consists of a flat-arch doorway with timber-sheeted door. To the N gable of the porch there is a pointed arch window with double lancet timber tracery (or Y tracery) with roundel over, all filled with small leaded panes. Above this window there is a stone panel which is inscribed ‘Glenshesk Chapel erected A.D. 1827. The site was a generous gift of Mr Cuppage’. This panel may have originally been sited on the main N gable. To the gable of the main building itself, above the level of the porch, there is a large round window, with quatrefoil frame and stained glass. There is a modern celtic cross finial to the apex of the gable.

To the W facade of the main section of the building there are five pointed arch windows, all evenly spaced and of uniform size, apart from that to the far right, which is taller and appears to be a later insert. The second third and fourth windows (from left) have double lancet timber tracery with small leaded panes and small stained glass panels. The first window has no tracery and is completely filled with stained glass, whilst that to the far right has no tracery also, but glazing as the three middle windows.

The S gable of the main section of the building is devoid of openings.

To the left hand (S) end of the E façade of the main section of the building there projects the gabled vestry / boiler room / toilet section. To the S face of this there is a flat-arch window with modern timber frame. To the right of this there is a small projecting lean-to porch, with a doorway with timber-sheeted door (which incorporates a louvered panel). To the E gable of the projection there is a small window to right, with frame as previous window. To the N face there are two doorways with doors similar to the main entrance. The doorway to the left leads into a toilet and has a disabled access ramp leading up to it. The E façade of the main section of the building has a window to left of the projection as that to right on the W façade, with three more windows to the right of the projection, as the three middle windows to the W façade.

The church is approached via a drive to the S, with a stone-lined (but slightly overgrown) pedestrian pathway to the N. The area immediately surrounding the church is paved, with a sloping lawn to the E and a a tarmac-covered car park to W. To the NW corner of the car park there is a decorative wrought-iron gate which is inscribed ‘J S 1829’. There is slightly more decorative (and somewhat later looking) cast-iron gate at the entrance to the pedestrian pathway.

Historical information

As the plaque on the porch states, this church was built in 1827, on land donated by ‘Mrs Cuppage’. ‘Mrs Cuppage’ was the wife of the late John Cuppage Esq. of near by Glenbank House, who, according to 19th century diocesan historian James O’Laverty, not only supplied the land, but had the area around the church ‘planted and ornamented’.

The church, built under the directions of Rev. Hugh McCartan, is shown on the OS map of 1832 and described in the OS Memoirs of the previous year as ‘tolerably well built but wholly unfinished internally…40 feet long by 20 feet wide’. The valuation of October 1834, however, supplies the more accurate measurements of 54ft x 28 x 11½ .

The vestry extension is indicated on the revised OS map of 1857, but the porch appears to be a late 19th / early 20th century addition. The building was extensively renovated in 2003, with new altar fittings [?and pews] installed in the process.

References- Primary sources
1 Information on plaque on outside of church porch (1827)
2 PRONI OS/6/1/14/1 OS map, Co Antrim, sheet 14 (1832)
3 PRONI VAL/1B/135 First valuation, Ramoan parish [Cary Barony] (1834)
4 OS Memoirs, Parish of Ramoan, (1831-39), reprinted in ‘Ordnance Survey memoirs of Ireland…’ ed Angelique Day, Patrick McWilliams and Noirin Dobson (Belfast, QUB, 1994), p.96
5 PRONI OS/6/1/14/2 OS map, Co Antrim, sheet 14 (1857)
6 PRONI VAL/2B/1/28a Second valuation, Ramoan parish [Cary Barony] (1859)
7 PRONI OS/6/1/14/3 OS map, Co Antrim, sheet 14 (1906)
8 Information on plaque inside church porch (2003)

Secondary sources
1 O’Laverty, Rev. J., ‘Diocese of Down and Connor Ancient and Modern’ (Dublin, 1887)
2 Brett, C.E.B., ‘Historic Buildings…Glens of Antrim’ (Belfast, 1971)

Other
references
1 EHS HB05/05/002 First Survey report (27 April 1972)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Small, plain, single-storey RC church of 1827, with later vestry and porch additions, extensively renovated in 2003 and now somewhat sharp and arguably modern in appearance.