Armoy Presbyterian Church, Church Road, Armoy, Ballymoney, County Antrim

Armoy Presbyterian Church

This two-storey Presbyterian church with a tower stands on Church Road in the village of Armoy, between Church Road and Drones Road. It was built in 1841 but underwent significant extension and embellishment in 1903, possibly to designs by Vincent Craig, incorporating vaguely Arts & Crafts and Art Nouveau stylistic elements.

The symmetrical front elevation faces west and is constructed in semi-coursed squared basalt rubble with raised lime mortar pointing. Dressings to openings, quoins and buttress caps are in a sandstone-like composite stone. At the centre of the elevation is a shallow bay that rises above the gable to form a short square tower. Originally this was a fully exposed tower on three faces, but during the 1903 remodelling the front gable line was brought forward and the tower largely integrated into it.

The lower stage of the bay is broader, with tall but relatively shallow buttresses. Low walls extending from the buttresses support a lych-gate-like porch with an oversailing slated roof. The porch features moulded barges with end panels, an incised tie-beam and torch bracket-like finial. Within the porch is a flat-arched doorway with a panelled timber door. Directly above is a relatively small pointed arch window with leaded glazing. A moulded string course separates the lower and upper stages of the bay. The upper stage is slightly narrower with in-out quoins. Just above the string course, a small date panel reads "Founded 1762 rebuilt 1841". Above roof level, where the bay becomes a tower, are pointed arch windows to the north, south and west faces, each with a three-pane timber frame and patterned glazing. The tower is topped with a short, slender lead-clad spire with decorative ship weathervane, set behind an open parapet with octagonal finial-like corner piers and a four-centred arch set between.

To either side of the bay on the main gable are three-light windows with cusped heads and leaded panes separated by stone mullions. Above both windows are triangular relieving arches. The gable ends have buttresses with small end piers to the gable coping.

The south face has a small left-hand portion finished as the front gable, bordered by two tall buttresses. Between these is a tall almost full-height canted bay with a slated hipped roof and a high-level window comprising three tall flat-arch lights with timber frames and leaded glazing. The remainder of the south face is finished in dry dash render with a cement render base course and three tall narrow segmental-headed windows with Perpendicular style tracery and plain cement render surrounds. The left window is slightly taller and incorporates decorative panels concealing the gallery floor line. Between the windows are large rubble-constructed buttresses, with another taller buttress to the right. The far right edge of the south face is finished in rubble as the front gable.

The north face mirrors the south face. At ground floor level of the east gable is a full-width single-storey projection, gabled to the centre with flat-roofed flanking sections. It is finished in dry dash render with a cement render base course and wall edging, with concrete coping to the parapet. The east face of this projection has nine windows symmetrically arranged in three groups of three, with those to the centre larger. All have metal frames with leaded panes, cement render surrounds and bevelled concrete cills. The south face of the projection has a flat-arch doorway with moulded surround and panelled timber door. The north face has another doorway with cement render surround and timber door, with two windows of similar type to the smaller windows on the east face to its right.

The main east gable is finished in dry dash render with full-height projecting rubble piers to the wall edges. Two high-level windows, similar to but much shorter than those on the main north and south faces, are present. A moulded string course follows the outline of the window heads as drip moulding. The gabled roof is slated with an overhang to the east gable supported on large timber brackets. Rainwater goods consist of cast-iron gutters on distinctive curled wrought-iron brackets and square downspouts. The gabled section of the projection roof is covered in artificial slate, with asphalt to the flat portions.

The church forecourt is tarmaced, as are the narrow paths to north and south of the building. The forecourt and paths are enclosed by a relatively low rendered wall with a broad pedestrian gateway to the west, featuring square rendered piers with pyramidal caps and decorative wrought-iron gates. To the north and east of the church is a graveyard, with a large car park to the south.