Ballywillan Church Ruins - Ballywillan, Portrush, Northern Ireland - Medieval Churches on Waymarking.com

The gate to the Old Ballywillan Church and the churchyard cemetery is on the south side of Magheraboy Road. The car park is beside the modern cemetery off Ballywillan Road. Take care crossing the narrow yet busy roads.

According to an 1886 article by F W Lockwood, the old church dates from the latter half of the twelfth century. Below, I have transcribed that fascinating article. Other websites date the construction to as recently as the sixteenth century.

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Notes on Ballywillan Church, Portrush: No doubt most visitors to the Giant's Causeway, on their way back from Dunluce, have, on emerging from the shelter of the cliffs, caught a momentary glimpse of two lofty gables, with no roof between them, that stand on the summit of an eminence about a mile inland, and which look for all the world like the remains of an unusually large roofless barn. These belong to the ancient church of Ballywillan, which until forty years ago was the parish church of Portrush, and out here the worshippers of Portrush have, until that date, for many centuries made their way on sabbath morns. Whilst spending a day or two at Portrush last June, I took the opportunity of making several drawings of this structure, as figured in the Plate facing this page. As may be clearly gathered from these drawings, the church, as it left the hands of its original builders, was composed of a single oblong structure, eighty-five feet long by twenty-three feet wide inside, and having no apparent division (unless there was one formed in wood) between the nave and chancel. In the east gable were two long narrow “lancet" windows; towards the eastern end of both north and south walls were two other small lancet windows, not quite regularly spaced; and in the west gable, high up, was a larger, but still long and narrow lancet window, with a widely splayed arched opening towards the inside. Towards the western end of the church were two doors, the one in the south wall having a semicircular arch; that opposite in the north wall a pointed arch. All this would appear to fix the date of the original building as in the latter half of the twelfth century, or what is known as transition or very early pointed Gothic, when the pointed arches were in general use, but the use of round arches, especially for smaller opens, & c., had not been entirely discarded. This building is, therefore, probably of the same date as Christ Church Cathedral, in Dublin, and Grey Abbey, in county Down. This is in itself sufficient to make it of considerable interest, for ecclesiastical remains of this age in the north of Ulster are comparatively rare. Many of them that may possibly yet exist are so small, and all the distinctive features by which they could be identified so ruined, that it is now impossible to assign their age with any approach to accuracy. In connexion with this it may be observed that Lewis, in his Topographical Dictionary, mentions this church as being the only one in either the diocese or the county built previous to the Reformation, in which at his date (say 1836) Divine service was then performed. So far as my knowledge extends, this statement, though nearly, is not quite accurate. Carrickfergus church was, I presume, in use at that date, and was certainly built during the thirteenth or fourteenth century, and prior consequently to the Reformation. But, quite apart from any question of comparative rarity, this church is interesting as giving us so good a specimen of the early English or transitional Gothic in so peculiarly Irish a type, unless it is better described as an Irish church clad in an English dress. To understand what this means, the reader may be reminded that, except in Ireland, almost every Christian Church in Western Europe, from the latter days of the Roman Empire until the days of Dissenting meeting-houses were reached, was founded upon the type of the old Roman Basilicas or Halls of Justice, which, when Christianity became the religion of the empire, became in Italy the first churches. It is sufficient here to say that the Basilicas had a central aisle, divided from two lower side aisles by a row of columns on each side. Through all the changes of architectural style and arrangement these aisles and pillars held their place, down even in England, at least, to the smaller village churches. In Ireland the case was different. There was always an affinity with the Eastern Church, and neither architecture or doctrines came direct from the Western Empire We have here the very earliest churches as tiny oblong cells, then oblong cells a little larger, then another cell added on to the east end, with an arch between, to form a chancel; and so the arrangement remained, only growing a little more ornate, until the English came and brought new arrangements with them. The interest then, in Ireland, is to trace the two different types blending into each other. In Christ Church we have pure English, or Anglo-Norman. In Grey Abbey we have the most beautiful and perfect English detail, but the long aisleless church is of the Irish type. In Ballywillan the detail of the windows and doors is completely English; but the ground plan — one long apartment without any chancel division even - is purely Irish. The only account giving any particulars I can find of this church is by Bishop Vant, in the Down, Connor, and Dromore Church Architecture Society's Journal for 1842. The only inaccuracy that I would note in his description is, that he calls all the small lancet windows round headed; several of them have pointed or true lancet heads. In other respects his description is as accurate and complete as can be desired. He calls attention to the two original lancet windows in the east gable, the heads of which are still to be seen above the large and comparatively modern window which has taken their place. He also notes the top of the second lancet window in the south wall, above one of the large window openings that have been formed there. He describes at some length the two interesting openings, or recesses, at each side of the east window, inside one of which, having a triangular head, was evidently an aumbry, or locker for the holy vessels; the other, figured in my drawing, he thinks was intended to receive the holy water. The interior of the church in its original condition, lighted only by its seven small lancet windows, must have produced a singularly gloomy effect, quite unsuited for the requirements of modern worship, but doubtless well calculated to produce a solemn impression upon the worshippers of those days. It is to be hoped that the small amount of care needed to preserve this structure from further decay will be extended to it, either by the Board of Works, or from some other source. The north doorway is at present in rather a dilapidated condition, and there are two large cracks down the centre of the east gable.

Lockwood, F. W. 1885–1886. Notes on Ballywillan Church, Portrush. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland (Journal of the Historical and Archaeological Association of Ireland, Vol. 7- Fourth Series, 1885-86), 17, 159–61.

Building Materials: Stone

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