First Presbyterian Church, Low Road, Kilcoan More, Islandmagee, Larne, Co Antrim

First Presbyterian Church, Low Road, Kilcoan More, Islandmagee, Larne, Co Antrim

This is a Gothic Revival church built in 1900–1901 to designs by Young and Mackenzie, replacing an earlier church on the site. The inscription panel records that the congregation was established in 1613 and rebuilt in 1901.

The church stands on a rectangular plan with small projections to front and rear. It is topped with gabled roofs of Bangor blue slates laid in regular courses, with moulded gutters and downpipes. The walls are rendered with dry dash of crushed stones and feature a moulded string course across the front at the base.

The entrance front faces east and is two storeys tall, gabled, and symmetrical. Buttresses mark the extremities of the central bay, side bays, and lateral end bays. The main entrance comprises two Gothic archways surmounted by drip moulding that runs continuously over both. Below the archways are sliding doors of pitch pine with ledged construction. Above the doors are inscribed sandstone tympanum panels with wavy and scalloped moulding. Foundation stones of grey sandstone dated 1900 flank each entrance.

Above the entrance is a sandstone inscription panel, supported by a three-light Gothic traceried window set within a four-centred archway. Narrow Gothic lancets flank this window on each side. The apex of the gable is surmounted by a bellcote with a round-headed opening containing a bell, with square corbels beneath it ornamented with four-lobed motifs.

The outer bays to left and right of the entrance contain two-storey Gothic lancets. The upper windows feature cusped heads in white painted timber frames; the lower windows are rectangular with wavy lower edges to the stone head. All windows have tinted diamond pattern leading with outer storm-proof plate glass sheets. Beyond the outer bays, side walls contain projecting lateral bays with stairways leading to the gallery.

The south-facing elevation displays the main body of the church with five windows across, separated by an intermediate buttress. A narrow gabled projection to the east end contains one window and has diagonal buttresses. A wider gabled projection to the west end contains a three-light window with a doorway below and angle buttresses.

The west-facing elevation features angle buttresses at the extremities. A circular window at high level is set within a smooth cement-rendered surround with storm-proof glazing and a horizontal metal framing member. Three segmental-headed openings at basement level comprise two timber ledged doors and one timber sliding sash window, vertically hung 2 over 2 with horns and four types of translucent glass, with a sandstone cill and smooth cement-rendered surround.

The north-facing elevation mirrors the south elevation but has a segmental-headed basement window instead of a doorway in the end bay.

The entrance gateway consists of four cast iron Gothic finials and panelled piers, original to the building. Iron gates of rectilinear pattern are replacements; two carriage gates occupy the centre, flanked by smaller pedestrian gates. Short rectangular ironwork screens to each side link to smooth cement-rendered piers and curved screen walls with cement copings, which return across the rest of the front boundary.

The interior is impressively galleried. The church stands surrounded by tarmac at a level now higher than the original grounds, with narrow borders of grass to the boundary on north and south sides. Mature trees to the front frame the view from the main road. Single-storey school buildings of no architectural merit stand detached behind the church along the rear boundary.

The church retains its original exterior form and enjoys a largely unspoiled setting. However, some alterations detract from the building: the PVC gutters and downpipes are replacements considered inappropriate; the buttresses and dressings to openings feature later smooth cement rendering with a mechanical and accentuated angular appearance that replaced original sandstone (traces of which remain visible as kneelers on the right-hand buttress); and the basement window contains four types of translucent glass that are considered inappropriate.