placenamesBallinderry Upper
Baile an Doire Uachtarach
Ballinderry Upper’s spired parish church belongs to a wider landscape of congregations, older church sites and memorial gifts.
The name
These Irish name elements are associated with this record in the Logainm glossary.
An element’s translation is a clue, rather than a complete explanation of the name. Its form and meaning depend on local history and the full Irish name.
Recorded forms
- Baile an Doire Uachtarach · Irish · main form · validated name
- Ballinderry Upper · English · main form
Place & story
The parish church above the road
Ballinderry Parish Church bears the date 1824 on its tower. Built during James Stannus’s incumbency, it cost £2,200, with £1,000 given by the Marquess of Hertford and the balance advanced by the Board of First Fruits. Thomas Walkington gave its stained-glass window in 1862 in memory of his parents and his ancestor Edward Walkington, Bishop of Down and Connor. The royal arms of Charles II were brought here from the Middle Church in 1859. [2]
The older church nearby
The nearby Middle Church was consecrated in 1668, following building work financed and directed by Bishop Jeremy Taylor. Superseded by the new parish church, it retained the parish burial ground. A donation from Mrs Walkington in memory of her husband supported its restoration in 1902. Its oak pews and three-level pulpit preserve a different church interior from that of its nineteenth-century successor. [3]
A Presbyterian congregation
Ballinderry’s Presbyterian congregation separated from Glenavy in 1713, although its first minister, John Hasty, was not ordained until 1724. In 1929 it joined with Moira under Robert George McFarland; that union ended in 2000. Its own published history records a hall built in the early 1950s, a second opened in 1990 and a linking extension in 2000. These changes show the continuing adaptation of the Meeting House Road congregation’s buildings. [4]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Antrim
- Barony
- Massereene Upper
- Civil parish
- Ballinderry
- Within
- Ballinderry
- Coordinates
- 54.53798, -6.20760 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 135712 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Ballinderry Upper. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- History of Ballinderry Parish Church · Ballinderry Parish
- History of Ballinderry Middle Church · Ballinderry Parish
- About Ballinderry Presbyterian Church: historical account from Lisburn’s Rich Church Heritage · Ballinderry Presbyterian Church / John Kelly
- Ballinderry Parish Church, Upper Ballinderry illustration: based on a Ballinderry Parish Church Feb 2008 by Stevemac3 at English Wikipedia. AI-assisted watercolour and ink adaptation; cream paper margins added, incidental clutter omitted and fine details simplified. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2021-05-26. How this page was prepared.