St. Patrick'S R C Church, Barnish, Co.Antrim

St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church is a Gothic Revival building originally constructed around 1800, set on an elevated site on the north side of Cushendall Road in Ballyvoy, in the townland of Barnish, County Antrim. The listing covers the church together with its front boundary walls, piers, railings and gates. The church owes its current appearance principally to alterations carried out in 1833 and again around 1887, and stands within a graveyard containing stone and marble grave markers dating from the 18th century.

The first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1832 recorded the original chapel as a simple rectangular structure aligned on an east-west axis. The contemporary Townland Valuations of around 1830 assessed the Roman Catholic chapel at £10 and 13 shillings, exempt from taxation. By 1835 the Ordnance Survey Memoirs noted that the chapel had only recently been enlarged and described it as "a handsome building adorned with light and tasteful pinnacles." The second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1857 confirms that the 1833 enlargement added transepts and a nave, giving the building its cruciform plan, which survives today. Griffith's Valuation of around 1859 raised the assessed value to £17 and recorded that the chapel stood on land leased from a Mr. John McGilloway.

A second phase of alteration took place around 1887, when the Annual Revisions increased the church's value to £19. The Ulster Architectural Heritage Society Guide suggests that this work included the addition of a front entrance porch — now obscured by a later 20th-century addition — and the construction of the church belfry. The First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57) valued the building at £85, recording it at that time under the name Ballyvoy Roman Catholic Church. Around 1965 a vestibule extension was added to the front elevation, obscuring the original façade, which remains intact behind it; this addition brought the value to £68 by the close of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72). The church was listed in 1980. A further renovation around 1995 included general repairs and alterations. The church also possesses a number of stained glass windows depicting biblical and Celtic themes, for which neither the date of construction nor the glazier is known.

The building is a symmetrical, free-standing, double-height structure with pebbledash rendered walls throughout. It is cruciform on plan, facing south. The roof is covered in natural slate with lead valleys and black clay ridge comb tiles, set behind slightly raised gables with ashlar coping and stone crosses at the apexes. Replacement moulded steel guttering is carried on sandstone eaves courses, with replacement steel box downpipes. The walls have a smooth rendered plinth course. Window openings throughout are pointed-headed with chamfered sandstone ashlar surrounds, flush splayed sills, hood mouldings, and coloured leaded glazing protected by storm glazing.

The original front gable, now largely obscured by the three-bay 1960s vestibule extension, is flanked by octagonal sandstone ashlar piers that rise above the roofline as tapered finials — features singled out by the 1835 Ordnance Survey Memoirs as "light and tasteful pinnacles." Above the apex of this gable rises a red sandstone bellcote housing a bronze bell within an open Gothic-style bell arch, surmounted by an iron cross. At gallery level, the original gable has a pair of oculi with quatrefoil window openings fitted with steel-framed windows and leaded glazing. The 1960s extension in front replicates the pointed-headed window openings of the original in cast cement, with the central entrance bay flanked by full-height stepped cast concrete buttresses. The entrance itself is a pointed-headed door opening formed in cast concrete with a chamfered surround, embellished spandrel panels and a hood moulding. It is fitted with double-leaf hardwood doors with vertically-sheeted panels and an etched overlight, opening onto a cobblelock platform with four cobblelock steps down to a bitmac-paved forecourt.

The west nave elevation and the south cheek of the west transept are detailed to match the original front gable, with a further single octagonal pier at the south-west corner of the transept. The gabled west transept is abutted by a flight of concrete steps giving access to gallery level, with a single central pointed-headed door opening fitted with a hardwood glazed and etched door. Below the steps is a square-headed door opening with hardwood double-leaf doors set within the stepped structure. The east nave elevation mirrors the west. Here the gabled transept is abutted by an original flight of stone steps with octagonal red sandstone piers and coping. The rear elevation features a central gabled chancel projection and a lower gabled vestry block in the north-east re-entrant angle. The chancel has a large pointed-headed window opening with timber tracery and figurative leaded stained glass covered by storm glazing.

Internally, the principal feature of note is the exposed stop-chamfered pine king-post roof trusses with iron tie-rods.

Although the pebbledash surface treatment is considered to detract from the historic authenticity of the building, much significant historic detailing survives. The setting is enhanced by the historic presence of this early Roman Catholic church in its rural location. The churchyard, which pre-dates the church itself, surrounds the building to the east, north and west and is enclosed by rubblestone walling. A bitmac driveway leads from the front entrance to the road, where a pair of decorative wrought-iron gates is hung on square-plan rendered piers with Gothic capstones; these are flanked by curved walls with matching railings and piers, and the front of the site is enclosed by a matching rendered wall.