Gilford Free Presbyterian Church, 28 Dunbarton Street, Loughans, Gilford, Co Down, BT63 6HJ

Gilford Free Presbyterian Church is a detached double-height church built in 1843, located on an elevated site on the north side of Dunbarton Street in Gilford. The building is rectangular in plan and abutted on its south side by a single-storey entrance porch with a flat roof; a lower two-storey extension, built around 2005, abuts the north side.

The roof is pitched with artificial slate and blue-black clay ridge tiles over corbelled eaves, with a raised verge with replacement concrete coping and kneelers to the gables. The external walling is replacement roughcast render with smooth quoins over a smooth rendered projecting plinth. Windows are double-height arched PVC casements set within recessed surrounds, all with stone sills. The principal gable faces south and is abutted at its centre by the porch; the exposed section contains a single window to the left and right of a marble plaque, with a datestone at the centre reading '1843'. The entrance porch contains a single window to its south elevation and a square-headed entrance door to its west elevation. The east elevation contains three windows at the left; at the right, two square-headed windows at ground floor are each surmounted by a round-arched-headed window at first floor.

The church stands on an elevated site bounded to Dunbarton Street by a roughcast plinth wall with painted stone coping surmounted by wrought-iron railings. Access is through double-leaf wrought-iron gates supported on chamfered square piers surmounted by stone urns, with a stepped approach to the principal entrance. The site is bounded to east and west by adjacent buildings and to the north by rubble walling. Vehicular access to the carpark is through double-leaf steel entrance gates to the north-east of the site. A modern single-storey hall stands to the north of the site.

The building was constructed in 1843 as a Methodist Chapel on land owned by local mill proprietor Hugh Dunbar. It is first shown, uncaptioned, on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858. The building is listed in Griffith's Valuation (1856–64) as a 'Wesleyan Chapel and yard' valued at £15, with no further changes recorded in valuations up to 1935. The history of Gilford in the nineteenth century is inextricably linked with the Dunbar McMaster & Co spinning mill, which opened in 1839. It was one of the largest mills in Ireland at the time and the driver of economic growth and social development. The mill attracted large numbers of workers to the town, causing the population to more than quadruple between 1841 and 1851, from 643 to 2,814, contrasting strongly with other areas in Ireland experiencing mass emigration due to famine conditions. The Methodist chapel was the first church building constructed in Gilford. According to historical records, the church has also served as an Elim Pentecostal Church and since 1990 has been the home of the Free Presbyterian congregation of Gilford. It was sold to the present owners in 1975.

The building has been completely refurbished externally, resulting in a total loss of original external detailing through re-rendering with cement, replacement of windows with uPVC units, and re-roofing with artificial slates. There is also significant loss of historic fabric internally. Although significant in the locale, these extensive alterations have compromised its architectural and historic character.