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Magilligan Presbyterian Church is a rural congregation, situated eight miles from Limavady in County Londonderry, on the Seacoast Road between Limavady and Coleraine in the shadow of the spectacular cliffs of Benevenagh.
History
Magilligan Presbyterian church was built in 1803. Prior to having their own church they had to travel to either Ballykelly or First Dunboe to attend a service of worship, both quite a long distance when one considers their mode of travel. The completion of the Bellarena Bridge in 1800 made the route to Ballykelly somewhat easier as the parishioners no longer had to cross a strip of water o0n horseback; often two people riding on a mount. To get to Dunboe they walked along the beach; if the tide was not in their favour the sea came right up to the cliffs making this road almost impassible. The building of the railway, part of which was tunnelled under the cliffs at Downhill, gave them an easier route though it was still a long journey, particularly during the winter months.
The Rev Robert Renoul, then minster of Ballykelly, and Rev Thomas Greer, then minister of First Dunboe, (he was married to Captain H Caldwell’s daughter Elizabeth who was from Magilligan) would conduct occasional services at a convenient location in Magilligan. These two men were the driving force in getting this church built. This would have been a great joy and blessing to the people of Magilligan who were happy to give their support. Marcus Gage gave a rood of ground in the townland of Margmonaghan on which to build the church. When completed in 1813, this church measured fifty two feet by twenty five feet and was lighted by five windows on one side and one window at the end, the door was at the side, it was said to have cost £205 to complete. Sir Harvey Bruce and Marcus Gage were the principal contributors to this building. Dr. William Allison gave £60 towards installing thirty four pews.
Rev Rentoul and Rev Greer continued to conduct services in the new Magilligan church as often as they could as Magilligan people were still not yet an erected congregation. In 1812 Mr. McCurdy presented a memorial to the General Synod held in Cookstown on June 30th of that year requesting that the protestant dissenters of Magilligan be erected as a congregation. However because a congregation cannot be erected at the meeting in which the application for erection is put forward, it was deferred until the meeting of the General Synod held in Cookstown in June 1813. During this time Rev Greer, Rev Rentoul and Rev Dill of Drumachose church in Limavady were asked to supply preaching as often as possible.
At the general meeting of the Synod in June 1813 the erection of a congregation in Magilligan was granted and put under the care of the Presbytery of Route. The Moderator applied to the government for a portion of His Majesty’s Bounty for the congregation of Magilligan which was granted in the autumn of that year. The congregation expressed thanks to the Presbytery for their help and attention since being erected.
Pulpit supplies continued until September 1814 when Rev Samuel Butler was ordained as minister of Magilligan Presbyterian Church.
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.
