St Patrick's Church of Ireland, Victoria Avenue, Whitehead, Carrickfergus, Co Antrim, BT38 9QF

St Patrick's Church of Ireland is a detached double-height Gothic Revival church built in 1908 to designs of Hill and Taggart, located on the west side of Victoria Avenue in the coastal town of Whitehead. The church is well preserved and retains many original features both externally and internally, with good quality Gothic Revival detailing including ornate tracery work to all windows. It is one of the more impressive buildings within the Whitehead Conservation Area.

The church is cruciform on plan, consisting of a central nave, aisles and transepts to east and west, a chancel to north and a square tower to south-east. The pitched roofs are natural slated with hips to the aisles; simple stone verges on corbelled kneelers, a cross finial to the north gable, and clay ridge tiles. The walls are squared-and-snecked rockfaced basalt with sandstone dressings and diagonal buttresses with offsets to the corners.

Windows are pointed-arched-headed in stepped sandstone surrounds containing leaded stained glass. The principal elevation faces east and consists of a two-window wide nave to the centre, with each window separated by buttresses. A gabled transept containing a single window with panel tracery abuts the right side, with a pointed-arched-headed chamfered sandstone opening containing vertically timber sheeted double-leaf doors to the south. A three-stage square tower abuts the left side, featuring a single window at ground floor surmounted by a pair of pointed-arched-headed louvred openings. The final stage consists of a parapet with pointed-arched-headed recessed panels and finials to the corners, topped with an octagonal stone spire with lucarnes. A pointed-arched-headed chamfered rebated sandstone opening containing vertically timber sheeted double-leaf doors faces north.

The south gable is abutted by a double-height projection at the centre containing a single window with panel tracery surmounted by a string course and loop window above to the apex. Aisles containing single windows abut the left and right sides. A tower containing a single narrow window at ground floor, with upper stages detailed as the principal elevation, abuts the right side.

The west elevation consists of a three-window wide nave, with each window separated by buttresses. A gabled transept containing a single window with panel tracery abuts the left side, with a double-height vestry surmounted by a gabled parapet adjacent.

The north gable is abutted by a double-height chancel at the centre containing a single window with panel tracery surmounted by a string course and loop window above to the apex. The east and west transepts abut the left and right sides respectively.

The church sits within a churchyard in a restricted site, with original and modern halls to the west. To the east, the site is accessed via seven stone steps and a modern ramp from Victoria Avenue through double steel gates and secondary pedestrian gates to the left and right, supported on modern square rendered pillars. The boundary wall to the east and south is surmounted by modern railings.

Roofing is natural slate. Gutters and downpipes are cast-iron ogee gutters with square downpipes.

The church first appears on a revised edition of the third Ordnance Survey map of 1902 (revised 1930). An entry in the Valuation Revisions of 1898 records a 'site of chapel', later revised to 'church and land' (date not given), with the lessor listed as John Raphael and the occupier as the trustees of Carrickfergus church. The building valuation was £25 10s. An entry in the revisions book in the 1900s notes 'half annual rent of the site of the church'.