placenamesMalin
Málainn
At Goorey, the meeting house preserves distinctive fittings alongside a congregational tradition about its shoreline setting.
The name
A reliable full-name meaning has not been established here. The recorded Irish and English forms are given without an unsupported translation.
Recorded forms
- Málainn · Irish · main form
- Malin · English · main form
Place & story
A hall beside Trawbreaga Bay
Malin Presbyterian Meeting House stands in Goorey, within Malin electoral division. The architectural inventory dates the surviving building to about 1780, with a later nineteenth-century extension. Its pointed windows contain diamond-shaped panes in cast-iron latticework. Inside, a horseshoe gallery stands on iron columns above timber pews and a central aisle; a carved wooden pulpit forms the focal point. A separate single-storey Sunday school completes the group. [2] [3]
The story of the tidal site
The congregation preserves a tradition that religious restrictions forced Presbyterians to build below the high-water mark, leaving their church surrounded by the tide twice daily. This is an explicitly local explanation of the exposed site, rather than documentary proof of such a legal requirement. It also does not establish the age of the surviving building. The tradition belongs to this meeting house, not to every church in the electoral division. [4]
Geographic information
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Malin. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Malin Presbyterian Meeting House, Goorey, record40900408 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
- Goorey townland and Malin electoral division · Townlands.ie
- Malin Presbyterian Church: congregational account · The Inishowen Four Presbyterian congregations
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2024-05-09. How this page was prepared.