St. Patricks Church is in the Parish of Kirkinriola. It sits within an extensive site along the Crebilly Road with superb views across Ballymena, especially at night, and from Slemish in the East to the distant Sperrin Mountains in the West.
The present church with seating accommodation for four hundred and seventy five was solemnly blessed on 14 October 1961 by Most Rev Dr Mageean. The church is built in reconstructed Ballycullen stone on a site donated by the Kearney family. The floor is finished in terrazzo tiling with mosaic insets. The Sanctuary, Altar, Predella and Altar Rails are in selected Italian Marble. The Baptistry occupies the ground floor of the campanile and has a marble font. The ceiling is executed in plaster, in diagonal panels with Celtic moulding enrichments. The same treatment was given to the Sanctuary arch and window architraves.
The choir is housed in a large gallery with tiered seating for one hundred people. Much thought was given to lighting. The Sanctuary has triple-panelled side windows extending from ground floor level to eaves level; they are executed in leaded lights with Celtic treatment and are enriched by stained glass Mass Symbols. These windows were by the eminent Belfast artist, Mr D Braniff, who also designed the front window panelling representing the young Patrick on Slemish. The Stations of the Cross are in oils and were painted by the well known Dominican artist, Father Aengus Buckley.
Information courtesy of: http://www.ballymenaparish.org/churches/st-patricks-crebilly
The cache is a micro in another container with WITR log – please only use one line. Bring your own pen. Not much space in the cache but there is a small piece of swag for the First to Find.
It is accessible by wheelchair, but assistance may be required to reach the cache. This is a fast road and very busy at times – take care & watch your mini-cachers.
The Church Micro IE series is open to everyone; if you have a church you would like to place a cache at then please contact THE_Chris through Geocaching.com. This is to keep track of the numbers of the churches and give you the general format for the cache page. In the UK there are #1500 caches in the series so we have some catching up to do! If you currently have a published cache at a church that you would like to include in the series get in contact and we can add it.
