Camlin Church

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

The derelict and overgrown remains of a ruined medieval rectangular single-cell gabled church built of fieldstones.
East gable stands fairly intact although, as elsewhere, many stones are missing from the external face, and contains a central window opening, slightly narrower to top but bereft of details; west gable is reduced to roughly half original height; side walls are much reduced in height. North wall has large opening at west end, probably the location of original main entrance. South wall has a window opening of roughly segmental headed form but bereft of details. The main features of interest are the eight Gothic arched recesses in the interior, four to each side wall, all in the eastern half of the church, described variously as 'sedilia', 'niches', or 'sepulchral arches', but whose original function is unknown. There are also two smaller recesses in the inner face of the east gable, one to each side of the window, which may be identified as an aumbry and a piscina.

SETTING: The church stands within an irregular shaped earth banked enclosure which has some remains of stone revetments around it, located in a very rural area and situated on a ridge overlooking the River Crumlin to its north. A medieval motte is within view on the opposite side of the river. The roughly grassed enclosure is ringed by mature trees growing along its perimeter bank and is entered through a pair of conical capped rubble stone piers hung with an iron gate now derelict. The site is surrounded by agricultural grazing land.

Historical information

Date of foundation and details of founder or to whom the church was dedicated are not known, but it is a medieval church, probably dating from the 13th century. The earliest record is that given in the Taxation of the Dioceses, compiled in 1306. Still in use in the mid-17th century as the register of the Diocese of Connor records that an ordination was held in it on 1st December 1661 by Jeremy Taylor, Bishop of Down and Connor. Tradition relates that the church was destroyed in the wars of James II, by the army of James which had its depot here in 1689. Described in the 1830s as "a venerable ruin overgrown with ivy". The building is a scheduled monument, no ANT59:4.

References - Primary Sources
1. OS Map 1832-3, Co Antrim 59.
2. Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland, Vol 21: parishes of County Antrim VII, 1832-8 (Belfast, 1993), pp 53-54, 61, 63, 71.
3. S.A. Lewis, A topographical dictionary of Ireland (London, 1837), p 247.
4. W. Reeves, Ecclesiastical antiquities of Down, Connor and Dromore (Dublin, 1847), p 5.

Secondary Sources
1. J. O'Laverty, A historical account of the Diocese of Down and Connor, Vol II (Dublin, 1880), p 306.
2. C. Watson, The story of the united parishes of Glenavy, Camlin and Tullyrusk (Belfast, 1892), pp 31-32.
3. Belfast Telegraph, 13 July 1936.
4. D.A. Chart, ed., A Preliminary Survey of the Ancient Monuments of Northern Ireland (HMSO, Belfast, 1940), p 55.
5. DOENI, Historic Monuments of Northern Ireland (HMSO, Belfast, 1983), p 149 (listed among 'Medieval Monuments', 'Not in State Care').

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

This is an important archaeological site which has been scheduled as an ancient monument.