St John’s C. of I. Church, Low Road, Ballyharry, Islandmagee, Larne, Co Antrim

St John's Church of Ireland, Ballyharry, Islandmagee, is a rare surviving example of a church still in active use in Northern Ireland whose principal historic fabric dates from the late 16th or early 17th century, and whose architectural character remains largely defined by that period despite significant early 19th century alterations. The church is also recorded as an ancient monument (SMR no. ANT41:17). Its condition has, however, been noticeably degraded by more recent additions and alterations.

The building is a gabled rectangular church with eight large buttresses distributed around three of its sides, Tudor windows, and a bellcote, set within a graveyard that slopes gently from east to west. The main entrance faces south.

ORIGINS AND HISTORY

The church is reputedly founded in 1595, though no documentary evidence for this precise date is known. In the early 19th century it was described simply as "ancient" and "of extreme antiquity", with no prevailing tradition of its origin recorded. Its surviving architectural features are, however, consistent with a date in the 1590s or early 1600s. In 1827–28, the north wing and 26 feet of the western end of the nave were removed and the original roof taken off to create the present church, at a reported cost of between £351 and £370. The Ordnance Survey map of 1832 shows a plain rectangle; buttresses do not appear until the 1857 survey and so were likely added between those dates, though their absence from the earlier map may simply reflect a lack of draughting detail. The bellcote was added sometime after 1840. Unspecified improvements were carried out in 1882 at a cost of £50. In 1965 the church was refurnished, with the introduction of a black reading desk made from oak panelling taken from the former Bishop's Palace at Clonfert, County Galway, dating from the 1630s. The communion table and reredos were made from original Jacobean furniture from Monasterboice, County Louth. A bishop's chair also came from Clonfert and bears the initials of Bishop John Whetmore of Clonfert and Kilmacduagh, dated 1736. A western porch and vestry were added in 1988–89.

EXTERIOR

The south façade presents a single-storey church two bays long, with a later two-storey single-bay addition to the west. The church roof is clad in Bangor blue slates laid in regular courses, except for the bottom two courses which are deeper; it is set between smooth cement-rendered gable copings with small gaps at the extremities. A moulded cast iron gutter is fitted, with three cast iron downpipes, all painted black.

The walls are finished in smooth cement render, lined and blocked to simulate masonry, with an offset plinth in the same finish. Bulky, weathered buttresses stand at each corner and in the centre of the south elevation, with a similar render finish to the walls. Each of the two bays contains a window: both are three-light, cusped-headed openings in painted sandstone beneath moulded rectangular drip mouldings, all original. 19th century diamond-pattern cast iron glazing bars incorporate an opening vent to the lower part of each central light. Cement repairs are visible to the mullions and splays, and the windows sit slightly proud of the general wall plane. The original west gable, to the left, is surmounted by a smooth cement-rendered bellcote with a pointed Gothic opening containing a bell, with weatherings to either side.

The later two-storey extension beyond to the left has a lower overall ridge height than the main church. Its roof, walls, gutter, and downpipe are finished in the same manner as the main building, but with a white-painted timber fascia to the eaves; the slates appear more regular than those on the main roof and are laid with lead upstands to the gable copings.

The main entrance is a plain rectangular opening fitted with double doors of apparent teak, brown-stained and varnished, boarded in a herringbone pattern, with a brass door knob; these are new. Above the entrance is a four-light white-painted timber casement with diamond-pattern leading set in a concrete cill. The doorway is surmounted by a modern bracket light with white plastic flex looped through a hole in the wall, which is considered inappropriate given its proximity to original church fabric. Concrete block paviours have been laid in front of the doorway, leading to a new path with a cobbled appearance but a synthetic finish, partly bordered by a new tubular metal handrail fixed to an adjacent buttress of the church.

The west elevation shows the gabled end of the extension with the bellcote rising behind it. Two windows are set into the wall, one to each floor, both white-painted timber fixed lights with steeply splayed concrete cills: a four-light window with diamond-pattern leading to the first floor, and a three-light window to the ground floor with similar leading, but with glass tinted translucent, incorporating a stained glass symbol and inscription to the centre and a metal-mounted outer sheet of protective plate glass.

The north elevation of the church mirrors the south, but a later poor-quality lean-to store projects from the right-hand corner. This has low cement-rendered rubble walls, a corrugated iron roof, and a ledged timber door. Inside the store an earlier exterior finish of the church walls is revealed: roughcast and whitened, with some crushed stones visible on the surface. Beyond the west gable of the church, the north elevation of the new extension is similar to the south side but has two windows on each floor: two-light casements as previously described.

The east elevation has walls finished as elsewhere, with the addition of flashing covering the apex of the gable. Buttresses stand at each corner; the rendering to the left-hand one terminates in an undulating profile above grave slabs that have leaned against it and slipped down to reveal that the buttress beneath is constructed of dressed sandstone that was previously harled. The central window is as those on the south elevation but is five lights wide, incorporating two opening vents. A path of concrete paviours runs around the base of the church and extension on all sides.

GRAVEYARD AND SETTING

The surrounding graveyard contains numerous headstones and memorial slabs, some within iron-railed enclosures, none of special architectural interest.

The church occupies a rural elevated site overlooking Larne Lough, alongside a main road but retaining an air of seclusion, as the churchyard lies below road level and is surrounded by mature trees. The setting is somewhat diminished by a recent path laid in panels, which cuts a pronounced line through the churchyard. Low modern cylindrical iron lighting fixtures flank the path but are considered unobtrusive.

The eastern boundary is formed by a rubble wall banked up with earth on its inner face, roughcast on the outer face, with copings of large rough-cut basalt stone blocks. Square gate piers have smooth cement-rendered faces and copings matching the front wall; modern circular bulkhead lights are fitted to the west face of each pier, considered inappropriate in design. The iron gates themselves are of simple and appropriate form. A concrete stile is attached to the northern pier. Wide concrete steps inside the gateway lead down to churchyard level, with concrete copings to the retaining walls at each side, mounted with modern iron railings that are considered inappropriate. The northern, western, and southern boundaries of the churchyard are formed mainly by earthen banks and wire fencing. On the south side there is a pedestrian gateway of concrete block piers, linked to the front boundary wall by a low, new concrete block wall of poor quality.