Christ Church of Ireland, 22 Derriaghy Road, Magheralave, Lisburn, Co.Antrim, BT28 3SH

Christ Church of Ireland is a free-standing stone Church of Ireland church built around 1870, located on a sloping site surrounded by cemetery and mature trees at Magheralave, Lisburn.

The church is rectangular on plan, facing west, with a tall square-plan steeple at the northwest corner, a stair turret at the southwest corner, and a lean-to open porch spanning the front crow-stepped gable. A vestry and organ chamber, set at angles to the southeast and northeast corners respectively, were added in 1904. The site includes a single-storey hall built around 1950 to the south, a stable block, and is enclosed by a rubble stone wall with stacked coping facing Derriaghy Road.

The steeple is a tall, obliquely set square-plan structure of random rock-faced stone with lancet belfry openings on all four sides, each containing two large stone louvres and continuous decorative impost moulding. A four-sided stone needle-spire rises from the tower with decorative moulding at the junction and three stages of decorative apertures. The upper section features stone ashlar and is surmounted by a copper finial.

The main body is built in rock-faced random sandstone with a tooled course to the projecting plinth, tooled corners, and stepped buttresses to the nave with tooled offsets. Pitched natural slate roofs with black clay ridge tiles, lead valleys and replacement metal rainwater goods are supported on exposed rafter feet. The chancel has a steeper pitch with hipped sections on either side to meet the lower pitch of the nave. The porch has a lean-to roof, the stair turret has a semi-conical roof with lead ridge and decorative copper finial, and the vestry has a hipped roof. The principal roof sits behind the crow-stepped west gable with lead flashing. Raised gables to the chancel and organ chamber feature moulded apex stones, ashlar stone coping and moulded kneeler stones.

Fenestration consists of gothic-arched window openings in chamfered sandstone ashlar with stained glass and storm glazing. The crow-stepped west gable features a large circular window of plate tracery with a series of cusped circles and gothic hood moulding above. The north and south nave elevations contain window openings with geometric tracery—four cusped lancets each, three roundels above, and hood moulding with foliate label stops. The east chancel window is a large gothic-arched opening with geometric tracery containing six cusped lancets, several trefoil roundels, clustered colonettes to the jambs and compound archivolt. Tall lancet openings appear at the west end of the nave, with small lancets flanking the organ chamber.

The squat stair turret projects from the south nave with a series of vesica openings below eaves level and slender lancets revealing the spiral stair to the interior. The lean-to open porch spans the space between the steeple and turret, featuring rubble sandstone walls with rounded jambs to the opening, a small square-headed window to either side, and an oversized elaborately carved foliate course below a concave eaves course. The porch is fitted with a pair of wrought-iron gates and a terrazzo floor.

Access is via a bitmac avenue from decorative iron gates on a pair of rock-faced sandstone ashlar piers set at oblique angles, with capstones and iron lanterns. A curved rubble stone wall encloses the site along Derriaghy Road.

The cemetery contains numerous stone, marble and iron grave markers and some box tombs dating from the eighteenth century to the present.