Alt Presbyterian Church

This fine Presbyterian church\meeting house, of probable early nineteenth-century date, retains much of its early form and character despite recent alterations. Of particular note is the elaborate classical entrance front with an elaborate pedimented entrance porch with triglyphs and mutules, engaged Tuscan pilasters to the corners, well-detailed gable pediment, and crowned with a quirky bellcote in the form of a classical aedicule. This elaborate entrance front conceals much more prosaic side and rear elevations with decoration limited to a central stained glass window, and a raised moulded verge to the west gable end with a classical urn to the gable apex. The visual appeal of this building is enhanced by the retention of the natural slate roof although the loss of the Georgian Gothic windows and the early doors in recent decades detracts from its integrity. According to local information this building was originally constructed in 1834 but the vestry is a later addition, added sometime after 1902 as not on Ordnance Survey twenty-five inch map. The impressive Doric porch may also be a later addition, perhaps added during the late-nineteenth century. It may have replaced an earlier Presbyterian meeting house(s) as there are references to a Presbyterian meeting house in Urney (location unknown) dating back as far as 1654. The present edifice may have been originally built as a Reformed Presbyterian church as it is indicated as a ‘Seceders’ Meeting House’ on the Ordnance Survey first edition six-inch map of 1837. Lewis (1837) records that this church at Alt was associated with the ‘Associate or Seceding Synod’. The Reformed Presbyterian Church is\was active in this part of Donegal, and there are still a number of congregations in the area, including churches at nearby Convoy, Stranorlar, and Letterkenny. This church at Alt appears to have been in use as a Presbyterian church by the turn of the twentieth century. The Revd. Samuel Stewart was the minister here in 1881 (Slater’s Directory). The graveyard to site contains a number of mainly late nineteenth-century and twentieth-century gravemarkers, some in railed enclosures and some of artistic merit, that add to the setting. This church forms a pair of related sites along with the simple single-storey former national school building (see 40907935) o the north-west of site. The good-quality decorative cast-iron gates and railings to the main entrance to the church, and the more utilitarian wrought-iron gate with cast-iron gate posts to the north of the school, add to the context and complete this composition, which is an integral element of the built heritage and social history of the local area.