Non-subscribing Presbyterian Church, Straidkilly Road, Cloney, Glenarm, Ballymena, BT44 0AJ

The Non-subscribing Presbyterian Church at Cloney, Glenarm, is a relatively simple two-storey building with a hipped roof, built in 1762. It is rendered in plain finish and features arch-headed sash windows and a small gabled side porch. The porch and the current form of the windows, with their segmental arch heads, are later additions dating from approximately 1875 to 1880. A two-storey manse, now a private dwelling, abuts the church to the east side and likely dates from the same period.

The church is situated within its own small graveyard on the north side of Straidkilly Road, to the northeast of the village centre. The west elevation contains a small single-storey gabled porch at its centre. A modern timber-sheeted entrance door is set within a square-headed opening with decorative mouldings and a keystone. Above this, a semicircular arch-headed 8/6 sash window with margin panes is positioned centrally. The west face is gabled with a plain bargeboard that overhangs slightly. The north face is blank. To either side of the porch on the main elevation are 6/6 segmental arch-headed sash windows with margins and decorative mouldings featuring keystones. The first floor carries two evenly spaced windows of the same type.

The south elevation is distinguished by a shallow projecting full-height gabled bay at its centre, topped with a parapet containing a chimneypot-like finial with ball pinnacle. Within the centre of the bay is a tall fixed-light window with margins. At the gable centre is a decorative inscription plaque framed with pilasters resting on vermiculated corbel brackets. The pilasters support a plain frieze surmounted by a split pediment. The inscription reads: "This House was Built in the Year of Our Lord 1762. The Enclosed Ground on Which it Stands With 30 Guineas Was the Bountiful Donation of The Rt Honourable Alexander Earl of Antrim to the Dissenters of Glenarm." To the left and right of the tall window on the ground floor of the bay are sash windows with margins, set in segmental arch-headed openings with moulded dressings and keystones. The gable features plain cope stones and a small squat circular feature at its apex. The first floor has windows to left and right of the projecting bay, and flanking windows appear on both floors to either side of the bay itself. Each side of the bay on both floors contains one window.

The east elevation contains a timber-sheeted double-leaf door at its centre with a segmental arch-headed fanlight, now boarded over. The opening is dressed with mouldings and keystone. To the left and right of the doorway is one window each, with two additional windows on the first floor. A two-storey gabled house, built circa 1880 to 1900 as the manse and now a private residence, abuts the right-hand edge of this elevation.

The north elevation features a slightly projecting bay similar to the south elevation, with two evenly spaced windows to ground and first floors. To the left and right of the bay are windows on both floors of the same type. The roofs are covered with natural slate and rainwater goods are cast iron. The building is surrounded by a small graveyard.

The Presbyterian congregation of Glenarm is among the oldest in Ireland, founded in the 1620s. It expanded rapidly during the mid to late 17th century due to the policy of the 1st and 2nd Earls of Antrim in settling Scots within the Glenarm area and the conversion of native tenants. The church was constructed in 1762 when Alexander, Earl of Antrim, was undertaking significant changes to Glenarm Castle and the village. Alexander donated the land to the congregation and contributed thirty guineas towards the building's construction. By the early 18th century, the congregation had adopted the more liberal "New Light" or Unitarian doctrines popularised by Irish and Scottish ministers. When Irish Presbyterianism formally split around 1829, the more numerous Unitarian members retained the church building, leaving the orthodox "subscribing" minority to worship elsewhere. The latter group eventually built a new church on Altmore Street in 1835 to 1836. The church originally consisted of the main rectangular block alone; the side porch was probably added in the late 19th century circa 1875 to 1880. The window openings, with their mouldings, segmental heads and margined sash frames, likely assumed their present form around the same period.