The remains of this mediaeval church sit on a height in the middle of a field in Churchfield townland, overlooking Ballycastle—and are accessible on foot from an information point on the Churchfield Road.
The site gave the area its names, with the current English townland name of Churchfield being a translation of the older Gaelic ‘Machaire an Teampaill’, and another local name of ‘Eglish’ coming from the Norman French word ‘Eglise’ meaning ‘church’. This important, ancient church site is said to have been strongly associated with St Patrick, who is purported to have appointed St Fiachra as bishop of the area. Some people even think that St Patrick might have been the foreigner or stranger referred to in the parish name of Culfeightrin, which means ‘The Corner of the Foreigner/Stranger’ translated from the Gaelic ‘Cúil Eachtrann’.
All that remains of the church is an almost intact east gable with a fine gothic window, and a small pillar of masonry on the former south wall—although the outline of the long, narrow church is still clearly visible. The style of the surviving window indicates that this part of the church was built in the late fifteenth century, probably about 40 years before the nearby Bonamargy Friary, although the site’s religious history is thought to be much older.
On the outside of the standing gable, each side of the window is decorated with an attractive carved panel of local fine-grained sandstone, showing intertwined ivy leaves. This side of the wall also contains square-shaped holes, known as put holes, which would have been used to hold the scaffolding to the wall as it was being built, subsequently being filled with plaster once the construction, using whinstone and sandstone, was completed.
Archaeological ponderings:
A curious arch of stones—below the window, built into the wall is an arch of stones which has puzzled archaeologists for many years—what was it and why is it there?
- One theory suggested that this covered a crypt below the church, but this seems unlikely given that the height of the arch is well above the floor level.
- Another, more likely, theory is that the arch, and the two massive pillars at each end of the gable, were reinforcing structures required because the ground beneath the wall was not entirely stable. It is possible that what we see now is a replacement wall—repairing a previous collapse from unstable ground—rebuilt with the arch and pillars to ensure that it would remain standing. The rest of the church, being much older, has subsequently collapsed, leaving only the rebuilt wall.
The church is unusually long relative to its width (30.48 x 6.4m)—however there seems to be a break in the walls about three quarters of the way down the church which could help explain the layout.
- It is possible that there are in fact two structures here, similar to the layout seen at the 13th century Layd Old Church just outside Cushendall. It is believed that there the adjacent building was accommodation for the priest.
For how long has there been a church on the site?
- An aerial photograph taken in 1983 during a dry spell, shows the clear outline of a roughly rectangular enclosure around the church, strongly suggesting that this was an early Christian monastic site, similar to the 5th century Nendrum monastic site on the shores of Strangford Lough. Such a monastery would have had a church at its centre, surrounded by a variety of buildings including accommodation, kitchens, workshops and possibly a round tower, as well as a graveyard—and over the years many human bones have been found when the field surrounding Culfeightrin Old Church has been ploughed.
This post is part of the What’s That? Project. Funded by The Community Arts, Culture and Heritage Fund & The Community Foundation for NI. The aim of the project is to highlight local historical sites and give people a short history of what is there. Main photo by Ciaran Laverty.
