Old Presbyterian Church (Non-Subscribing Presbyterian)

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A T-shaped building with rendered walls, raised quoins and slated roof. Windows are timber fixed lights set in segmental headed openings; replacements for original sliding sash windows. Entrance contained in a projecting gabled porch on front elevation which has a semi-circular headed window.

Setting: the building stands within its own walled enclosure, facing the main street of the village.

Historical information

Originally built in 1710, “built of stone, roughcast and whitened”, with a thatched roof and earthen floors to the aisles. Subsequently much altered. The congregation was founded in 1613 and was the first Presbyterian congregation in Ireland.

It stands within the area of a scheduled monument, no. ANT 47:9 (the site of a medieval chapel and graveyard, known as ‘Brakenberghe Church’).

References - Primary Sources

1. Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland: Parishes of County Antrim X, Vol 26 (Belfast, 1994), pp 85, 92, 101.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

This is a building which has some claim to historic significance by association, but is of no special intrinsic architectural or historic merit or interest.