Ballywatt Presbyterian Church, Ballywatt Road, Coleraine, Co. Londonderry

Ballywatt Presbyterian Church

A free-standing Presbyterian church built in 1895 to designs by Vincent Craig, constructed of random squared rock-faced blackstone with red sandstone dressings. The church is located to the west side of Ballywatt Road, east of Coleraine, in a large site surrounded by farmland.

The building has a rectangular plan with transepts to east and west, a side-aisle to the east, and a chancel to the north. A square entrance tower with stairwell extension projects from the southeast corner. The tower is polygonal to its upper section and rises to a shaped parapet topped with a squat spire and weathervane. The roof is covered in rosemary clay tiles with a pitched profile and rounded ridge tiles; raised sandstone verges finish the gables, which are topped with finials. Paired polygonal chimneystacks rise from the north gable. Cast-iron half-round rainwater goods are fixed to bracketed stone eaves.

Diagonal buttresses with sandstone offsets address the gables, and a chamfered sandstone string course sits at plinth level. Windows throughout are coloured leaded lattice lancets set in chamfered sandstone blocked surrounds with chamfered sills. The transepts feature paired cusped lancets with multi-foil oculuses over them. The east-facing front elevation displays three lancets to the side aisle, flanked by the tower to the left and transept to the right.

The tower features rectangular windows to each facet of its upper polygonal section. At ground floor, a windbreak porch with a sandstone gable between buttresses is topped by a finial. An inscribed datestone in a cusped moulding at the apex reads "BALLYWATT/CHURCH/1750/REBUILT/1895". The entrance comprises replacement pointed-headed timber-sheeted doors in a chamfered reveal with a moulded head, accessed by three stone steps with modern metal handrails.

The south elevation of the tower is abutted by the stairwell extension, which features decorative half-hipped timbering detail and is lit by a central three-light leaded-and-stained glass window with a bipartite window above. The south gable contains a window of three staged cusped lancets (the central one lower than the others) with a multi-foil oculus over, surmounted by a relieving arch; a narrow opening breaks the apex of the gable.

The east elevation displays four leaded lancets and the transept at the left. The north gable is abutted by a five-sided chancel with buttresses and stained glass lancets to all but its east face. A small square castellated vestry abuts the east side of the chancel, detailed to match the main church with a pyramidal roof topped by a terracotta finial. The vestry features rectangular windows to its east elevation and right cheek, with a pointed-headed timber-sheeted door in a chamfered sandstone blocked surround on the east elevation, accessed by two stone steps.

The site is bounded to the road at the east by a roughcast rendered wall with roll-top coping. The entrance comprises original square red ashlar sandstone piers with tall polygonal caps on chamfered pedestals, supporting original cast-iron gates, with a modern cattle-grid at the entrance. The site also incorporates the Moore Memorial Hall (to the north), a mid-twentieth century cement rendered single-storey hall to the west of little interest, and a cemetery with headstones dating from the late nineteenth century, some topped with ornate Victorian cast-iron railings.