Thursday Doors – The Old Church

The old church in the grounds of Glenmona House, Cushendun is the main feature of this week’s Thursday Doors post. Constructed in 1838, it was a Church of Ireland place of worship for some local landlords and their families and built of locally quarried red sandstone. Because the congregation dwindled over the years, the church was deconsecrated in 2003 and is now an arts, heritage and community centre.  After thirteen long years of campaigning, lobbying, application forms and hiccups, restoration began in autumn 2018, and the keys were handed over to the dedicated volunteer group, Cushendun Building Preservation Trust, in July 2019. I’ll put a link at the end of this post if you would like to see the interior and read more of the history.* 

You can see from the next photograph how close Glenmona House is to the church. I think the large circular object in the foreground might have been a fountain or a sundial at one time.

At the edge of the grounds around the house you can see some cute little holiday pods that look right at home surrounded by all those trees.

I found a smaller, even cuter, wee house attached to one of the trees and had to include it in this post.

It’s called a beach hut for good reason. You’ll see why in the next image.

That’s the view across the road, with a nice little beach just a stone’s throw away.

Thanks for stopping by this week. Dan’s post has links to lots of interesting places that are great to visit virtually in this time of restricted travel. Next week’s Thursday Doors will feature a variety of buildings not too far from the old church.

The Old Church *