Ballykelly History

Ballykelly History
Photo Tamlaghtfinlagan Church by Art Ward

The present-day Tamlaghtfinlagan Church of Ireland was built in 1795 with funds from the Bishop of Derry and the Hon. John Beresford, the name can be traced back through a series of ecclesiastical buildings to the foundation of an Abbey in circa 580 AD. This was located not far from the present church, the first Abbot here was Findluganus, a follower of St. Columba. The present church is the final resting place of Blind John McCurry, the itinerant fiddler whom Jane Ross heard playing outside the Burns & Laird Shipping office in Limavady, the melody he was playing so captivated her that she noted it down and later passed it with her song collection to George Petrie.

Photo Ballykelly Model Farm by Art Ward

On the Main Street opposite the Model Farm which is now an Independent Hospital, stands the Presbyterian Church which was built in 1827. Designed by the English architect Richard Suter (1797-1883) who was employed as the surveyor for the Fishmonger's Guild. The church was extremely contemporary for its time, he also designed Banagher Church, the Model Farm, the Lancastrian School, the Company Agents House, a range of houses on Main Street, the Dispensary and the lodge in the Presbyterian churchyard.

Photo of Rough Fort by Art Ward ©

The architecture of the Presbyterian Church so impressed William Makepeace Thackery that he commented on it while passing through the village during his Tour of Ireland in 1842: Quote: "In Ballykelly, besides numerous simple, stout, brick-built dwellings for the peasantry, with their shining windows and trim garden-plots, is a Presbyterian meeting-house, so well-built, substantial, and handsome, so different from the lean, pretentious, sham-Gothic ecclesiastical edifices which have been erected in late years in Ireland, that it can't fail to strike the tourist who has made architecture his study or his pleasure. The gentleman's seats in the district are numerous and handsome; and the whole movement along the road betokened cheerfulness and prosperous activity".

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