A3 between Dollingstown and Moira
Lurgan.
Opening Hours
Monday to Sunday
8.00am to Dusk

Magheralin Church of Ireland in Magheralin village; a very old, plain, stone building with a tower and a very low spire; it holds 400 people with the average attendance in 1836 of 400; the seats were of oak and it had a small organ; there is a large Gothic window in the east gable which gives it an antique appearance; there is an inscription on the wall for Jacob Camac dated 1784; the Glebe House, which is plain and old, is near the church; the rector in 1836 was Rev. Boghey Odlling; records available are BMD 1783-1870; burials 1846-1863, Vol 12, p. 109, OSM: LDS

The origins of Magheralin are obscure, but the church has been identified with "Lann Ronan" or the "Church of Lan", and is mentioned in the Taxation of Pope Nicholas of 1306. It is, like all the old graveyards of the four parishes, wild and dilapidated. There are now no traces of the mediaeval church, and the Archaeological Survey dates the surviving walls as no earlier than the fifteenth century. The tower and transept were built during the next two centuries but the whole was in ruins in 1657. It was rebuilt after the restoration to be abandoned finally in 1845 when the new church was built across the road.

The registers date from 1692 and the oldest stone from 1706. There is a large number of eighteenth century stones, many of which are small with a distinctive raised edge, and families represented in this period are: Barr, Byrne, Close, Connelly, Connor, Donnelly, Douglass (moved to the new church), Feris, Fletcher, Gurnell, Henderson, Humphrey, Irwen, Lavery (5 stones pre-1800), MaCoun, Macoun, Malkinson, M Murphy and Paterson. Until the seventeenth century the land belonged mainly to the sept of the O'Lavery's and the name is still numerous in the area. When the church at Lurganville was built the family appear to have used the burying ground there.

Our thanks to Richard S.J. Clarke for his contribution to this information.