Church Of St. Patrick And St. Brigid, Garron Road, Milltown, Co.Antrim

The Church of St. Patrick and St. Brigid is a free-standing, gable-fronted, seven-bay double-height Gothic Revival Roman Catholic church built in uncoursed rock-faced red sandstone, erected between 1916 and 1917 to designs by William J. Moore (c.1873–1921), a Belfast-based architect also responsible for St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church in Cushendall. The church stands on a slightly elevated, gently sloping site on the south side of Garron Road in the townland of Carrivemurphy, and forms the focal point of the coastal settlement known as Glenariff, being the most conspicuous structure in the bay. Its dramatic coastal setting and impressive interior mosaics and stained glass considerably enliven what is otherwise a largely 19th-century idiom in design.

The building is rectangular on plan, facing southwest, with an apsidal chancel to the rear and a vestry block attached to the southeast corner. The pitched natural slate roof has roll-moulded terracotta ridge tiles set behind a slightly raised front gable with sandstone coping and gableted kneeler stones. Cast-iron guttering runs to a chamfered ashlar eaves course, with cast-iron downpipes. The walling throughout is uncoursed rock-faced red sandstone ashlar with pale sandstone dressings, including a chamfered trim to a projecting stone plinth course and offsets to stepped buttresses. All window openings are round-headed, formed in chamfered smooth sandstone ashlar with flush splayed sills, and are fitted with steel-framed windows containing Art Nouveau leaded coloured glazing with storm glazing.

The southwest front elevation is the principal façade, surmounted by a gabled bellcote carrying a cross finial and a metal bell set within a round-headed arch. The façade is tripartite in composition, defined by stepped buttresses. At its centre sits a large pale sandstone rose window with leaded coloured glazing and storm glazing, set within an arched recess with three decoratively carved sandstone square panels below, and a triple-arched window opening at ground floor level with leaded coloured glass windows. To either side of the rose window, projecting gabled entrance porches each feature a chamfered round-headed door opening fitted with replacement vertically-sheeted hardwood doors, sandstone coping surmounted by a cross finial, and a stone platform and step with steel handrails to the front area.

The northwest nave elevation is six windows wide with a further vestibule bay to the right. This vestibule bay has a full-height round-headed recess containing a circular pale sandstone panel and a sandstone-dressed loophole window below. The southeast nave elevation mirrors the northwest elevation, with a diminutive single-bay single-storey vestry block attached to the southeast corner. This vestry has a pitched natural slate roof with a chimneystack, square-headed door and window openings with chamfered sandstone lintels, single-pane timber sash windows, and a sheeted timber door. The gabled rear elevation is filled by the slightly lower semi-circular chancel, which has a semi-conical roof and three elevated round-headed window openings with leaded stained glazing. The three chancel stained glass windows were designed by Michael Healy (1873–1941) of Dublin, and the church bell was manufactured by the Matthew Byrne Foundry, also of Dublin. The sandstone used in construction is believed to have originated from a quarry in the townland of Knocknacarry. The interior is noted for good modern mosaic in the apse behind the altar.

The church replaced an earlier chapel on a nearby site. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1830–38 recorded that the Roman Catholic population of the parish of Ardclinis stood at 1,288 in the early 19th century. Local tradition held that a church would not stand in the parish, and during the Night of the Big Wind on 6th January 1839 the roof was blown off an unfinished building. The original chapel, known as the Church of St. Killian, was eventually opened on 15th September 1839. It was situated within the graveyard to the west of the current church and first appeared on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1857, depicted on a rectangular layout with a south-facing projection. Griffith's Valuation of around 1859 recorded the chapel as standing on land leased from the Earl of Antrim and valued it at £15 and 5 shillings. The Church of St. Killian continued largely unchanged until the summer of 1915, when it was accidentally destroyed by fire. Tenders for the replacement church were invited in July 1916, with the Thornbury Brothers of Belfast contracted as builders. The completed church was opened in 1917. Under the Annual Revisions its value was increased to £65, and under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57) this rose to £130, before being reduced to £116 by the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72). In 1972 the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society described the church as "a simple stone church, without spire or tower — a modest belfry only — with round headed windows, the interior simple and pleasing, with good modern mosaic in the apse behind the altar." The church was listed in 1990. An extensive renovation was carried out in 1999, which included restoration of the sandstone fabric and the stained glass windows.

The church is enclosed by a low rendered wall with steel gates hung on square rendered piers.