St Mary’s Church of Ireland Church, Largy Road, Carnlough, Ballymena, Co Antrim

St Mary's Church of Ireland Church, Largy Road, Carnlough

This is an early 19th-century church in Neo-Norman style, built in 1837 as Ardclinis parish church to the design of William Hagerty, architect of Londonderry. The church retains a number of its original features and enjoys an unspoiled rural setting.

The building is constructed of masonry and consists of a nave, small chancel, entrance tower, and robing room, aligned north to south with the main entrance facing west. The entrance elevation comprises a three-bay gabled nave with a square three-stage tower set back to the right, containing the main entrance, and a short gabled chancel set back to the left.

The nave roof is covered in Bangor blue slates in regular courses, set between sandstone gable copings, with an ashlar stone chimney on the left-hand gable. The walling is of basalt rubble with projecting plain pilaster end strips and pilasters between windows, a projecting sandstone plinth, and two projecting red sandstone corbel courses. PVC gutters and downpipes have been added.

Three windows in the nave have stone mullions and transoms in sandstone. Each window features two round-headed lights coupled within a larger round sandstone head containing a tracery light, set in semi-circular arched openings with roughly dressed basalt voussoirs. Each light contains cusped metal tracery and thin metal glazing bars glazed with small panes, with an inward-opening vent incorporated in each window and splayed cills.

The tower to the right has similar basalt walling with a projecting sandstone plinth, a moulded sandstone string course at the first stage, and a moulded sandstone cornice at the top with a blocking course of what appears to be rhyolite. The ground floor stage contains the main entrance, comprising a pair of rectangular timber panelled doors with semi-circular arched panels, surmounted by a panelled semi-circular timber tympanum, all set in a raised and moulded semi-circular headed painted stone surround. A Victorian iron lamp bracket projects from the door surround. The second stage of the tower contains a triplet of windows with raised semi-circular headed surrounds set below an elliptical relieving arch. Similar triplets of windows occupy the south and east faces of the second stage. The top stage contains a tall arched surround with coupled semi-circular arched timber louvres, with similar louvred openings on the other three faces.

The chancel to the left of the nave has a blank elevation to the west. The walling is similar to the nave but without pilasters, with PVC rainwater goods.

The north elevation shows the nave gable of snecked basalt with sandstone kneelers to the coping and an ashlar sandstone chimney on the apex with a moulded cornice. Small rectangular openings occupy each corner, with a small semi-circular arched opening in the apex of the gable below the chimney, containing timber louvres. The chancel gable is of similar walling and contains a large 3-light window, transomed and mullioned, with similar detailing to the nave windows but glazed with stained glass. The end wall of the vestry to the left is of limestone and contains a rectangular timber small-paned fixed light with timber lintel and projecting stone cill, painted.

The rear elevation shows the nave is similar to the entrance elevation but has only two windows, as the third bay from the left has been built out later as an organ chamber of coursed basalt rubble with squared white limestone quoins and upper part of walling of roughly coursed limestone. PVC gutter and downpipe have been added. The nave roof is slated as previously described, swept down over the organ projection with PVC gutter and cast iron downpipe. In the angle between the main nave wall and the later organ projection is a low later lean-to block in brickwork with an asbestos slated roof and sheeted timber door. To the right of the projecting organ bay is the blank basalt wall of the chancel, similar to the entrance front. A lean-to vestry at ground floor is of snecked limestone with projecting sandstone plinth and a roof of Bangor blue slates in regular courses. PVC gutter and cast iron downpipe, with timber eaves board, have been added. The entrance is a modern rectangular timber ledged door with modern brass draught excluder at the base, timber lintel, and two stone steps. The tower to the left has a blank ground storey with a cast iron downpipe from the parapet gutter at the top stage. A later lean-to building at the base of the ground floor has brick walls and an asbestos slated roof, with PVC gutter and cast iron downpipe and concrete steps down to a sheeted timber door at basement level.

The south elevation comprises the main nave gable of blank walling with side elevation eaves courses returning across it to meet the tower projecting centrally. The end elevation of the tower is similar to the entrance face except the ground storey contains a tall fixed light lancet window, round-headed as in the nave, with a traceried head and small panes, with a weephole in the splayed cill.

An organ chamber was added in 1884, and the church was re-seated in 1885.

The church stands in a very rural area, facing the main road but set back from it within its own grounds, with distant views toward the sea. The front boundary wall is of greystone rubble in rough courses with rubble coping, containing a pair of original iron gates mounted on square piers with broad weathered sandstone caps, stamped 'Gardner, Armagh'. The front wall of the churchyard joins the front walling of the adjacent graveyard in the same plane but the latter is of different-toned stone with modern strip pointing and is not set in courses, with a set of plainer gates mounted on piers with concrete caps. The north boundary walling is of uncoursed basalt rubble, not running uniformly to the rear, ramped down at an intermediate position, and changing direction alongside a stream. The south boundary between churchyard and graveyard is formed by a low white limestone revetment containing a small pedestrian opening without a gate. The east boundary is formed by a white limestone revetment, roughly squared at the south end but of rough rubble construction to the rest, surmounted by a wooden post and wire fence. There are no memorials of special interest in the churchyard.