Magheramorne Presbyterian Church, Magheramorne, Larne, Co Antrim

Magheramorne Presbyterian Church is a Gothic Revival church dating from 1876, designed by Samuel P. Close (1842–1925), a leading Irish architect. It was originally conceived as a mission house and school — Close exhibited drawings for it under the title 'Mission House Schools, Magheramorne, Larne, Co Antrim' at the Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin in 1877 — and later became a Presbyterian church. It stands in a rural location on a sloping site with distant views over Larne Lough, facing the main road and set below it, with lawns and grassed areas to all sides. Together with its associated entrance gates, boundary walling, and a detached lavatory block in a matching style, and the adjacent domestic property immediately to the north-west (originally designed as its manse), the church forms a coherent and important group. It retains its original features both inside and out, and is of local interest and social importance.

The building is rectangular in plan, with a two-storey gabled projection and an engaged square tower at one end, and a gabled porch at the other. The main entrance faces south. The south (front) elevation presents the side of the nave, with a low gabled porch projecting at the right-hand end and a tall gable projecting at the left-hand end, with a three-stage square tower to its right, set in front of a low lean-to bay occupying the angle between the tower and the nave.

The roofs throughout are covered in Bangor blue slates laid in regular courses, with terracotta ridge tiles and terracotta finials to each gable. Eaves overhang on projecting rafters with shaped and notched ends. The walls are of basalt rubble with later reticulated pointing, and a projecting plinth with a chamfered yellow brick weathering course. Rainwater goods are cast iron gutters and downpipes throughout, with some later PVC replacements noted.

The main front of the church to the south elevation has three pairs of coupled Gothic lancet windows with yellow brick dressings and arches, projecting sandstone cills, and decorative leaded glazing in Art Nouveau patterns incorporating medallions to the upper areas. The porch to the right contains rectangular double doors of ledged timber in a diagonal pattern, set in yellow brick jambs with a plain sandstone head surmounted by a Gothic relieving arch in yellow brick, with a recessed basalt spandrel panel containing a sandstone shield inscribed 'AD 1876'. A curved metal lamp bracket below the shield is a later addition. The porch has chamfered timber barge boards on projecting brackets with shaped and notched ends, small quatrefoil perforations to the shaped ends of the barge boards, and tongued-and-grooved sheeted soffits to the overhang. A concrete step is flush with a ramped concrete pathway across the front of the church. Where the porch wall returns to the main block, there is one small lancet window dressed as the others, glazed with stained glass.

The tall gable at the left-hand end of the south elevation contains a tall triplet of Gothic lancets set in a yellow brick arched surround with sandstone cill, glazed with leaded clear glass in a lozenge pattern with margin lights, and fixed lights with a square horizontally pivoted opening panel near the top of the central lancet. In the apex of the gable is an ocular window in a yellow brick surround, glazed with leaded clear glass in a lozenge pattern. Barge boards on brackets match those of the porch.

The square tower to the right of this gable rises in three stages. At ground floor level is a rectangular doorway similar to the porch, with an identical datestone but without a lamp bracket. Above the doorway is an ocular window set in two recessed yellow brick surrounds, glazed with leaded clear glass in a lozenge pattern. A chamfered yellow brick cornice above (partly obscured by cast iron guttering) supports a slated pyramidal roof of truncated form, surmounted by an open timber triple-arcaded belfry with a slated spire roof. The belfry has lattice timbers below cusped heads, and the spire has a swept profile with an iron finial at the top. The other three faces of the belfry and spire match the front. The west-facing side wall of the tower at first floor level is blank. The north-facing side is also blank, with a PVC downpipe discharging onto the roof below. The east-facing side has an ocular window matching the front elevation, and at ground floor level a small Gothic lancet with leaded clear glass in a lozenge pattern with margin lights. To the right of the tower's east-facing wall, in the angle with the nave, is a single-storey bay with the roof swept down over it, a cast iron gutter and downpipe, and a small Gothic lancet matching those of the tower.

The west elevation has a broad slated roof with a yellow brick chimney at the left-hand end, capped with a cornice of three brick courses. To the right of the chimney, the ridge tiles are broken by a small gablet marking the end of the nave roof; this gablet has barge boards incorporating a cusped wooden arch over two louvres with notched edges. Below the gablet, and on axis with it, the eaves line is broken by a lower gable over a pair of tall coupled lancets with a large circular tracery light above them, all dressed in yellow brick, with Art Nouveau leaded motifs to the lancets and stained glass to the roundel. Barge boards and brackets match those elsewhere. To each side of the coupled window and roundel is a Gothic lancet with decorative leaded glazing of floral character; at the extreme right is a pair of coupled lancets glazed with clear glass in a lozenge pattern. Two cast iron downpipes serve the cast iron gutters.

The north elevation shows the long nave wall and a tall gable at the right-hand end, both in the same plane. The nave wall is of the same character as the south front, containing a single lancet at the left-hand end followed by four pairs of coupled lancets, all glazed as on the entrance elevation. The gable at the right contains two tall lancets with decorative leaded glazing of floral character, surmounted by a blind ocular basalt panel in a yellow brick surround containing an uninscribed sandstone shield. At the apex of the gable is a yellow brick chimney matching the others. Most of the plinth of this gable is obscured by the flat-topped cement roof of a partly rendered concrete block bunker built into the slope of the site and projecting to the north. This is of poor quality construction and contains a store and two toilets, with glazed rectangular timber doors to each.

The east elevation presents the end gable of the church, with the low south porch set back to the left. The main gable has a triple-light window of tall lancets with a high cill-line, surmounted by an ocular window, all dressed in yellow brick and all containing stained glass. The side wall of the porch set back to the left contains a small lancet of stained glass, as on the west side of the porch. A cast iron gutter serves the porch, with a cast iron downpipe in the angle with the main gable.

Standing detached to the rear of the church is a modern flat-roofed single-storey prefabricated building, considered inappropriate in form and materials to its setting. Detached to the east is a single-storey gabled building contemporary with the church, built of basalt rubble with yellow brick quoins, yellow brick surrounds, and angled cills to small Gothic-arched windows — one in each gable and two in the west side — all with wooden louvres, except the left-hand opening on the west side, which has a two-pane fixed timber window with iron bars to the interior but no glazing. The roof is of Bangor blue slates in regular courses with terracotta ridge tiles; projecting rafters have shaped ends; timber barge boards are on projecting brackets with shaped ends, though the barge boards and brackets are new replacements, and at the time of listing the building was in the course of being re-roofed. The east elevation has red brick walls containing two rectangular ledged timber doors, and a third doorway now bricked up.

The main entrance gateway consists of a pair of square piers of roughly coursed snecked basalt rubble, with rough basalt coping stones and a projecting plinth of angled yellow brick. Curved screen walls of basalt rubble with similar copings and plinths project forward to each side and terminate in square piers of the same character. The original double gates are of ornamentally treated wrought ironwork. The site boundaries are formed by a mature hedge to the front, a line of mature trees to the west, a hedge and fence to the rear, and a hedge to the east with tall trees beyond.