Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB06/05/002 D

Address :
Old Graveyard Ballycarry Larne Co Antrim

Townland:
Forthill

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Survey 2:
Record Only

Date of Listing:

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Graveyard

Former Use
Graveyard

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
Yes

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
84/14

IG Ref:
J4485 9370

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Owner Category

Local Govt

Exterior Description And Setting

A walled graveyard containing the ruins of Templecorran church, first mentioned in 1622. Main entrance to graveyard faces north: comprises a pair of square stone piers with angled tops all covered with wet dash render; single gate of flat ironwork; modern turnstile attached to right-hand pier. Boundary wall to right of basalt rubble with basalt rock hewn basalt copings, returns to north and abuts a pair of square basalt piers with concrete caps, pair of wrought iron gates, original. Hedge boundary to north side of graveyard. Boundary to west is basalt rubble wall with cement rendered coping. Boundary to south, common with St John’s Churchyard, is formed by mounded earth and basalt rubble. Boundary to east formed by hedge, returning with lumped-up basalt rubble walling back to main entrance gateway. Ruins of church: cruciform on plan built of greystone rubble; walls intact to one storey height; tall east and west gables, overgrown, lower north and south gables, also overgrown. Two doorway openings, one in each side wall of nave west of transepts; one window opening to west of each doorway. One window in north wall to east of north transept. Large window opening in east gable. No architectural features easily visible except two loopholes in west gable, one to each side just above present ground level inside. Interior is grassed and used as burial ground. North transept has segmental arch formed of bevelled sandstone voussoirs but later blocked with roughly coursed basalt rubble containing a rectangular window; rusticated block sandstone reveals, sandstone head and cill, with iron barred gate; segmental headed sandstone panel above window inscribed ‘Erected March Anno Domini 1860’ and with details of the Fletcher family interred in the vault thus created (Philip Fletcher MD d. 1844; son Capt. Philip Fletcher d. 1859 etc). Transept roofed with segmental stone vault; floor overgrown. South transept also closed up to form burial vault: front faced with ashlar sandstone with rustications to quoins and base courses; contains rectangular opening with sheet iron door. Above doorway, a sandstone plaque in damaged aedicule surround, inscribed ‘Herelieth the body of Noah Dalway who departed this life ... July 1820 ... this monument erected by his son Marriott Dalway’. To left of Dalway vault, set in south wall of church, is a memorial stone to Edward Brice (see HB06/05/002B). South-east corner of church occupied by a single-storey mausoleum or vault, in Tudor Revival style, to the Horsborough family (see HB06/05/002C), built into the corner walls. The graveyard around the ruined church contains numerous memorials, many in the form of flat sandstone slabs with curvilinear tops, but none of those of special architectural interest. The most interesting memorials are the Orr Memorial (see HB06/05/002A) and the Lewis Vault built by Richard Gervas Ker of Red Hall to the memory of Mrs Anne Lewis of London who died at Red Hall in 1819: a gabled rectangular vault of sandstone ashlar in a classical style, with panelled pilasters and mutules to the frieze; rough cement render and lime render to sides and rear; roof covered with cement render. Setting: the graveyard stands in a rural area situated to the south of the village of Ballycarry, on an elevated site with distant views across Larne Lough to Islandmagee to the east. Area in front of main entrance is a hard surface car park with driveway in line with main street of village.

Architects

Not Known

Historical Information

Appears on OS map of 1831 along with church of cruciform plan, marked as ‘church in ruins’. Driveway from north appears on OS map of 1858. Church recorded as having been rebuilt in 1622; originally medieval but reduced in size when rebuilt. Ceased to be used after 1710 when the Unitarian Meeting House (forerunner of present Old Presbyterian Church) was built in the village. A portion of the roof consisting of oak rafters and slates was still in position in 1770. North transept vaulted over and the arch closed up in front by the Edmonstone family of Red Hall (who purchased the parish from the Dalways in 1609) to form their family burial vault; date not known but prior to 1760 when they sold their property to the Kers; vault later occupied by Fletcher family, date not known, but by late 1830s; present inscription panel erected in 1860. South transept vaulted over and the arch closed up in front by the Dalway family to form their burial vault; date not known; front later faced with cut stone, date not known precisely but c 1820s or 1830s. Date of Brice Memorial slab (HB06/05/002B) not known but original inscription refers to members of the family for four generations. Date of Horsborough Vault (HB06/05/002C) not known but c early to mid-1830s. Orr Memorial (HB06/05/002A) erected in 1831. Date of Lewis vault not known but c 1819. The foundations of several extensive buildings in the immediate vicinity of the church have been discovered in the graveyard and in the adjacent fields in the past suggesting that a religious complex may have once stood here. The rector in the early 17th century was Rev Brice who was the first Presbyterian clergyman to come to Ireland and founded the first Presbyterian congregation in Ireland here. Dean Swift also preached here for some years. Although it is difficult now to examine all of the ruins closely due to the amount of overgrowth on some of the walls, the transepts being closed up as vaults, and later memorial slabs having been affixed to some internal walls, the following architectural features were recorded in the Ordnance Survey Memoirs in the 1830s: 6 square-headed windows in the nave and chancel, that is one in each of the east and west gables and two in the nave walls, that is one to each side of the transept on each side, north and south; 2 loopholes each in the west, east, and north gables; a square-headed window in each transept gable, but later built up except for a small ventilation hole; red sandstone used to dress windows and yellowish sandstone used in the arches of the transepts; later vaulted roofs used in each of the transepts. The church is a scheduled monument, no. ANT47:10. References - Primary Sources 1. OS Map 1831, Co Antrim 47. 2. Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland: Parishes of County Antrim X, Vol 26 (Belfast, 1994), pp 83, 85, 92, 108, 109-112, 117-119, 120. 3. S. Lewis, A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (London, 1837), pp 127, 603. 4. Mr and Mrs S.C. Hall, Ireland: its Scenery, Character etc, Vol III (London, 1843), p 122 [includes an engraved view of the ruined church]. Secondary Sources 1. D.A. Chart, Ed., A Preliminary Survey of the Ancient Monuments of Northern Ireland (HMSO, Belfast, 1940), pp 39-40. 2. A. Dowlin, Ballycarry in Olden Days (Belfast, 1963), pp 11-13, 33.

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

Not listed

Historic Interest

Not listed

Evaluation

This is a graveyard of some antiquity but its shape and bounding walls are comparatively recent. The main architectural element within it is already a scheduled monument and one of the memorials within it is listed separately.

General Comments

Date of Survey

29 July 1998