St. Patrick’s Church is in the parish of Skerry, Rathcavan & Newtowncrommelin in the Diocese of Connor in the Church of Ireland part of the Anglican Communion. The Parish of Skerry & Rathcavan was at one time in the patronage of the Marquis of Donegal.
Situated in the Braid Valley in the shadow of Slemish, tradition ascribes the foundation of the Church to St.Patrick however the church building that we see today was erected by Charles O’Neill of Shane’s Castle in 1765. The Church was enlarged in 1829, and in 1859 a chancel, transept and vestry were added. Extensive repair work to the tower, roof and windows was completed in January 2006; a new lighting system was also installed. In recent years the spire has had to be removed because it was in a dangerous condition.
The East window was erected by friends of The Rev WC Crawford to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of his ministry in 1865. The Church contains many beautiful stained glass windows.
The church is unusual as it has a lychegate at the front entrance and at the rear.
Many years ago there was a school attached to the church. When the church stopped providing education it was used as a church hall.
The Rev Canon Dr. John Grainger was rector of the parish 1869-91 and was later regarded as ‘the Father of the Ulster Museum’. He is buried in the graveyard and a replica of the Monasterboice Cross marks his grave.
Broughshane is the ‘Garden Village of Ulster’ winning the Britain in Bloom Competition many, many times. It is also close to Slemish Mountain where St. Patrick is said to have been enslaved as a swineherd.
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. . He keeps track of the numbers of the churches and he will 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.
