Feystown RC Church, Feystown Road, Deer Park Farms, Glenarm, Ballymena, Co Antrim

Feystown RC Church

This small, single-storey gabled Roman Catholic church was built in 1828 on land granted by Lord Antrim, serving an overwhelmingly rural parish. It replaced an earlier church of 1810 that stood roughly half a mile to the east in Claudy townland. The building is rendered and painted white with black at plinth level, and sits on a slight rise to the east of Feystown Road, approximately four miles south of Glenarm.

The church comprises a main rectangular body with a chancel and vestry projection added in 1878, and a gabled entrance porch constructed in 1918 (rebuilt a few years later due to structural problems). The north gable features a small gabled porch with panelled timber double doors on both its east and west faces. The porch gable contains a pointed arch window with stained glass and has a slated roof with parapet.

The main north gable displays a high-level roundel window also with stained glass. The west elevation of the main body has five pointed arch windows with stained glass, label moulding with decorative stops, and a buttress. The east elevation is more complex, with a gabled vestry projection on the far left featuring rendered chimneystack and slated roof. Attached to this projection are small flat-roofed extensions with timber-sheeted doors and small windows with modern frames. The main exposed section of the east façade has pointed arch windows matching those on the west. The entire main roof is slated with parapets.

A bellcote with slated hipped roof and metal cross finial sits on the north parapet, with another cross finial at the apex of the south gable. Metal rainwater goods are present throughout.

The south gable displays a large three-quarter statue of St Patrick as a young man, commissioned by Angela, Lady Antrim, around 1971. The statue faces toward Slemish mountain, traditionally associated with St Patrick's captivity as a shepherd. The statue was damaged in a terrorist bomb attack in 1973 but was subsequently restored.

The church underwent extensive renovation in 1961-2 under Reverend Liam Kirkwood, when new windows, doors, floors, altar fittings were installed and the bellcote was added. This scheme cost approximately £5,000 and was partly funded by a £1,200 donation from parishioner Mrs Alice McAllister, who raised the funds through the sale of the Ardclinis crosier to the National Museum in Dublin.

The surrounding graveyard contains headstones dating back to 1829 and is bounded by a low, partly harled and partly exposed rubble wall. The main gateway to the west (roadside) features simple round, conical-capped pillars with wrought iron gates decorated with simple, slightly crude spearhead motifs. The gates are now in poor condition.

The graveyard wall was erected in 1910 following the purchase of additional land to the east of the building.