Saint Andrew's Parish Church of Ireland, Carricknaveagh Road, Carryduff Road, Killaney, Lisburn, County Down

Saint Andrew's Parish Church of Ireland

A free-standing, symmetrical neo-gothic stone church built between 1865 and 1867 to the designs of the renowned architects Welland & Gillespie, who served as architects to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. Construction began in August 1865, and the church was consecrated on 18 April 1867. The building was originally known as St. John the Evangelist Church until 1904, when the name was changed to St. Andrew's. The church represents a good example of late nineteenth-century neo-gothic design, retaining all original fabric both internally and externally, with an austere interior and notably steep roof.

The church is positioned on an elevated and conspicuous site on the east side of Carryduff Road at its junction with Carricknaveagh Road, in the Townland of Carrickmaddyroe. It is built on a U-shaped plan facing west and set on a north-south axis, with a pair of gabled projections to the front elevation and an octagonal-plan steeple to the northeast corner.

The structure features a steeply pitched natural slate roof with roll-moulded black clay ridge tiles, set behind raised gables with chamfered sandstone coping and carved sandstone finials. Metal rainwater goods are fitted to exposed rafter feet. The walls are constructed of rock-faced random basalt ashlar with lime pointing and tooled sandstone ashlar quoins. Window openings are pointed-headed with red and white sandstone voussoired relieving arches and sandstone plate tracery fitted with original cast-iron latticed windows.

The west nave elevation contains a pair of window openings with trefoil-headed paired openings and a quatrefoil above. A gabled projection at the north end houses an entrance porch, while a corresponding projection to the south contains the vestry. The entrance porch features a trefoil-headed door opening with pointed-headed hood moulding and a vertically-sheeted timber door with decorative iron door furniture, opening onto a sandstone step with a cast-iron bootscraper. The vestry projection similarly features a trefoil-headed door opening with matching door.

The gabled north end elevation displays a large circular sandstone plate tracery rose window with a central quatrefoil opening and red and white sandstone relieving arch, with a pair of small trefoil-headed window openings below. The octagonal steeple is attached to this gable, with a battered lower level featuring a pointed-headed opening to each side with continuous hood mouldings and impost mouldings. These openings are now blocked up with cement block. The spire is constructed in pink sandstone ashlar with rib mouldings, a ball finial, and loop-hole pierced openings to alternating sides.

The east nave elevation contains three window openings as on the west elevation, with a further tripartite stone plate tracery window lighting the altar area, comprising three trefoil-headed windows and a quatrefoil opening above. The south gable, extended to the west by the vestry, features a single tripartite window opening of three trefoil-headed openings set within sandstone plate tracery with three lozenge openings above.

The setting comprises a large lawned site at the elevated location, containing a few late nineteenth-century stone grave markers and numerous twentieth-century grave markers. The site is enclosed to the roads by a low rubblestone wall with stacked coping. A bitumac driveway perpendicular to the road is enclosed by a pair of decorative cast-iron gates on rubblestone piers and matching cast-iron railings on low walls to either side. A corrugated iron community hall stands to the rear.

Historical context reveals that the Parish of Killaney was first recorded in 1194 as part of a charter granted to John de Courcy. A precursor church was destroyed during the 1641 rising and was never rebuilt. From the 17th century, services were held in various locations including a nearby Presbyterian Church Hall and Carricknaveigh Old School. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1832–38 record that in 1830 the vicar was Rev. William Boyd and the church had an average attendance of only 12 people. By the 1860s, the congregation had grown significantly, prompting Rev. R. L. Scott to appeal to the Marquis of Downshire for land on which to build the present church. The Marquis donated the plot in 1865, and the structure was built by James Henry.

The church was valued at £30 in the Annual Revisions, and in 1867 the valuer noted that additional land was likely to be added for a burial ground. Between 1912 and 1923, the church was grouped with Drumbo Parish Church. In 1923 it was paired with Saintfield when the Rector of Saintfield became the sole clergyman of each. St. Andrew's was later paired with the parish of Carryduff when it was created in 1954. The church was listed in 1988. A floodlighting system was installed in 2005, and the church and spire have recently been refurbished and restored. The building serves as a focal point for the local Church of Ireland community.