Orange Hall

Detached four-bay single-storey Orange hall, built c.1910, having single-bay single-storey porch. Now in use as Free Presbyterian church. Pitched slate roof with moulded terracotta ridge tiles, terracotta finials and carved bargeboards to gables, and replacement uPVC rainwater goods. Ruled-and-lined rendered walls, with smooth rendered block-and-start quoins. Square-headed window openings to long elevations with painted concrete sills and replacement timber windows having recent metal screens. Square-headed door opening to porch, with replacement timber battened door, opening onto concrete step and platform. Modern timber railings to south of site, facing on to Castleblayney to Newtownhamilton road, in close proximity to Second Castleblayney Presbyterian Church at Frankford to east.

Located at a prominent roadside site, this former Orange hall was constructed c.1910. The hall became a Free Presbyterian Church in the twentieth century. Orange Halls served an important social function throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as the meeting places of the Orange Order, a Protestant religious/political society, founded in 1795. Orange Halls became a common feature in both town and countryside, often functioning as community halls for the Protestant community, and used for social, political and cultural functions. The Free Presbyterian Church was established by the Rev. Ian Paisley in 1951, with most of its community residing north of the Border. Located close to the Border on the main Castleblayney to Newtownhamilton road, the setting of this quaint, attractive, hall is enhanced by its close proximity to Second Castleblayney Presbyterian church at Frankford to the east.