St. Nicholas' Church of Ireland Church, Lancasterian Street, Carrickfergus, Co. Antrim, BT38 7FH

St. Nicholas' Church of Ireland Church, Carrickfergus

A triple-height Norman cruciform Church of Ireland church built circa 1180 by John de Courcy, enlarged circa 1305 to designs by Robert le Mercer, remodelled circa 1615 to designs by Thomas Cooper and 1614 by master mason Thomas Paps, and renovated in 1907. The building faces west and comprises a nave and elongated chancel, full-height transepts to north and south, a three-stage tower with spire to the west, a baptistry to the south of the nave, a late nineteenth-century double-height gabled organ loft, and a modern single-storey vestry to the north of the chancel.

The roofing is pitched natural slate with blue and black clay angled ridge tiles, dressed stone verges, and crosses to the transept and chancel apexes. Parapet gutters are fitted with round cast-iron downpipes. The walling is random rubble basalt with a moulded stone cornice. Buttresses are constructed of random rubble stone with dressed quoins and offsetting. Windows throughout are pointed-arch-headed stained glass with sandstone Geometric tracery and splayed flush sills, except where otherwise stated. Hoodmoulds are label-ended.

The principal west gable is centrally abutted by the tower. Both exposed sections have V-jointed granite quoins, with a single stained glass oculus over a square-headed casement with sill, all within splayed sandstone surrounds (the left oculus is blocked).

The tower's first stage has V-jointed granite quoins, a moulded cornice with balustraded parapet and corner urns. The third stage features random rubble walling with a central round-headed timber louvered aperture with dressed granite architrave and keyblock. The principal west elevation of the tower has ashlar walling with a central square-headed replacement timber raised-and-fielded three-panel double-leaf door with modern overlight, all set in a moulded sandstone architrave with keyblock. The doorcase is surmounted by a triangular pediment with simplified Doric entablature over engaged Doric columns flanking the door. The second stage has squared rubble stone walling built to courses, with a central dressed stone semi-circular relieving arch over a pediment surmounted by a Serliano window framed by Doric pilasters with simplified Doric entablature, keyblock, and blocked sidelights. The tower cheeks are blank; the first and second stages have squared rubble stone walling built to courses. The spire is octagonal on plan with dressed stone, features modern clockfaces to the principal compass points, and is surmounted by an orb and cross.

The north elevation is abutted to its left end by the transept. The exposed section is entirely abutted, except to the left end, by a rubble stone buttress with a single diminished window inset at the left end. This left end window is set within a dressed sandstone elliptical-arch-headed recess and has Decorated tracery. The north transept gable is centrally abutted by a crypt porch. The exposed section is blank with a ghostmark of a slightly lower gable and angled buttresses. Both cheeks have two wall-head gables over pointed-arch-headed windows with splayed sandstone reveals and a single buttress between them. The crypt porch has a pitched natural slate roof with blue and black roll-top ridge tiles, roughcast walling, and angled buttresses with terracotta offsetting. The gable has a central pointed-arch-headed entrance opening with cement-rendered reveals and a wrought-iron gate, with a diminished louvered door within accessing the Donegall and Chichester crypt. The cheeks are blank.

The rear gable is entirely abutted by the chancel. The chancel has random rubble stone walling with angled buttresses to the gable (the left buttress retains remains of decorative carving) and a single central full-height window with moulded sandstone reveals and hoodmould. The left cheek is four windows wide, each with Decorated tracery and decorative hoodmoulds, with single buttresses between the first and second windows at the right. An additional diminished cusped lattice-glazed lancet is positioned at the extreme left end. A blocked pointed-arch-headed entrance with dressed sandstone surround is present. The right cheek is abutted by a modern vestry to the left and the organ loft to the right. Exposed sections have an excavated plinth to the right end with a single Decorated tracery window with hoodmould (label dated 1932), and a similar window at the extreme left end. The organ loft gable has a bipartite lattice-glazed lancet with label-ended hoodmould and splayed flush sill over a pointed-arch-headed timber door with moulded sandstone architrave (blocked by an exposed boiler). The cheeks are blank.

The south elevation is abutted to the right end by the transept and to the centre by the baptistry. The exposed section has a single pointed-arch-headed leaded painted glass window in moulded sandstone surrounds with a block-label-ended hoodmould, surmounted by a brick elliptical relieving arch. A single diminished window over the baptistry is surmounted by a brick half-round relieving arch. The baptistry has an elliptical-arched stone roof with moulded verges and cornice featuring a keystone, sandstone quoins, and a gable with a central single round-headed tripartite stained glass casement (the centre casement is taller) in recessed sandstone plate tracery with sill. The cheeks are blank, with various later eighteenth- and nineteenth-century wall-mounted memorial plaques affixed. The south transept gable has angled buttresses and a central full-height window with hoodmoulds. The cheeks are two windows wide with a central single buttress. The right cheek has a single window to the left with Intersecting tracery and hoodmoulds, and a single square-headed tripartite cusped casement with stop-ended labelmould. The left cheek has one complete double-height pointed-arched ghostmark to the right and one partial to the left. The left end has a square-headed tripartite window (detailed as the right cheek), and the right end has a single off-centre blocked square-headed window with splayed sandstone surround.

The church is situated in an ancient churchyard enclosed by boundary walls containing numerous nineteenth-century mausolea, wrought-iron and cast-iron railing-enclosed family plots, cast-iron grave markers, and seventeenth- to eighteenth-century gravestones and wall-mounted plaques. Rainwater goods are half-round cast-iron gutters.