St Canice’s C of I Church, Balteagh Parish, Drumsurn Road, Limavady, Co Londonderry, BT49

St Canice's Church of Ireland stands in Ardmore townland, Balteagh Parish, on the Drumsurn Road near Limavady, County Londonderry. This is a stone-built hall church of late Georgian character, constructed around 1815–1816 as a replacement for an earlier church across the road. The building was designed by John Bowden, architect to the Board of First Fruits, which granted £600 (or £700 according to Ordnance Survey records) towards its construction. The structure consists of a four-bay nave without a defined chancel, accompanied by a square crenellated and pinnacled three-stage tower at the west end, a projecting vestry at the south-east corner, and an organ wing on the north side near the east end.

The tower contains the entrance, accessed through a pointed doorway on its south side. Above this door sits a small square blank recess with flat sandstone surround and reveal on the west face, with a similarly proportioned window on the north. The second stage displays pointed blank windows on the south and west sides and a window on the north, all comparable in size to those of the ground floor. The third stage has a single large pointed and louvred opening on each face, each with short and long sandstone surrounds. All openings are surmounted by whinstone relieving arches. Above a simple moulded string course defining the third stage, the parapet features single flat-topped battlements with undecorated sharp-pointed pinnacles at each corner.

The nave's south side is punctuated by a row of evenly spaced two-light pointed windows with short and long smooth sandstone surrounds, finishing flush with the random rubble stonework—a mixture of whinstone and sandstone with buttered mortar joints spreading onto the stone face. Each window is protected by a whinstone relieving arch. The north side contains three similar windows, the fourth being obscured by the organ wing. The east gable displays a comparatively wide three-light window with criss-cross Y tracery and sandstone surround. A plinth with chamfered sandstone string course, approximately 600 millimetres above floor level, runs around the entire building except the vestry projection.

The organ wing, likely dating from around 1913, features smooth rendered walls with narrow pointed lancets on the side walls and a circular window high on the gable displaying pentagonal-patterned glazing. The vestry, recently rebuilt with a discordant lean-to roof, contains a pointed door, one slim pointed lancet, and walls of mixed squared sandstone, field stones, whinstone, and concrete blocks. Above the vestry door is an ancient-looking stone plaque with a damaged raised border, bearing indecipherable markings, initials T P and C, and the date 1682; tradition holds this plaque came from the demolished Glebe House. The asbestos-slated roof with timber fascias and bargeboards (with slight overhang) masks former barge stones and eaves corbelling. Guttering and downpipes are of PVC. Windows are neatly executed timber frames with cast iron diamond inserts, painted white and in good condition, with sandstone cills throughout.

The building's history is complex. An Ordnance Survey Memoir of 1823 records that the church, though recently built, required extensive repairs following the appointment of Reverend George Scott. In that year, £300 was borrowed from the Board of First Fruits and expended on significant alterations: the church length was extended, the roof was re-covered with large slates, a gallery was added, and the floor, pews, and ceiling were reconstructed. The memoir notes the church as "58 feet by 25½ feet" in dimension, with the tower measuring "9 feet 10 inches by 12½ feet", and records a spiral wooden staircase within the tower leading to the gallery, and accommodation for 150 persons in the body and 50 in the gallery. However, no spiral stair or gallery survives today. Leslie's Clergy of Derry and Raphoe reports the church "in perfect repair" in 1820, while Lewis's Topographical Dictionary mentions a loan of £277 for repairs in 1828. In 1896, the church underwent further improvements: windows were opened on the north side, heating apparatus was installed, a pipe organ was introduced, the chancel was panelled in oak, a new pulpit was erected, and the floor was tiled throughout. In the 1980s, the church was re-roofed, the vestry was mostly rebuilt, and the lean-to roof was added. Electricity and associated fittings were provided by S M Macrory of Ardmore Lodge.

Interior memorials include: a plaque to Reverend Heaslett, rector of Balteagh 1946–1977, on the north wall; a plaque to Reverend Stack (died 13 April 1863) on the west wall; and a plaque to John J Buchanan (born 17 March 1858, died 26 March 1924) on the south wall.

The church is set at right angles to the Drumsurn Road, with the tower adjacent to the road. A partly filled graveyard with mature trees surrounds the building, bounded by a stone wall with stone piers and iron gates. Across the road stands the site of the former church.

This building was delisted on 29 August 2001, as the extensive alterations since the second half of the nineteenth century, combined with the commonality of this building type and the use of inappropriate materials, had degraded its heritage value to the point where listing could no longer be justified.