placenamesKilraghts
Cill Reachtais
Kilraghts, also written Kilraughts, preserves histories of religious division, tenant farming, rebuilding after fire and family remembrance.
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
- Cill Reachtais · Irish · main form · validated name
- Kilraghts · English · main form
Place & story
A congregation divided
First Kilraughts traces its foundation to 1660. Its own history records a serious division following the death of the Reverend Matthew Elder in 1827, when disagreement over a candidate for the vacant ministry split the congregation. Members moved to the local Reformed Presbyterian church and to congregations at Ballyweaney and Dunloy. [2] [3]
Samuel Finlay and the tenant farmers
The Reverend Samuel Finlay combined his ministry with tenancy of a farm at Pinehill. According to the congregation’s history, he and many church members participated in the Tenant Right Campaign. When he died in 1887, he left the farm to the congregation for use as a manse. It served that purpose briefly before its purchase by Kilraughts Reformed Presbyterian Church, linking the two congregations through the same property. [2]
Rebuilding after the fire
An accidental fire destroyed First Kilraughts Church on 4 April 1971. The congregation chose to rebuild, creating a new church with a modern design and stained glass. Historian and lifelong member S. Alex Blair later documented those years in Sweet Adversity. The congregation’s account of the book presents the rebuilding as a decisive episode, following the loss of a building that had already undergone several earlier alterations. [3]
Recording the old churchyard
Kilraughts Old Churchyard served families from a wider district, including Loughguile, Stranocum and the country around Ballymoney. Researcher Dorothy Arthur describes most of its burials as Presbyterian or Reformed Presbyterian. For her 2014 study, Bill Simpson produced a scale map when no earlier plan could be found. Linking gravestones to that map made the scattered family memorials easier to locate and study together. [4]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Antrim
- Barony
- Dunluce Upper
- Civil parish
- Kilraghts
- Coordinates
- 54.98103, -6.40663 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 62252 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Kilraghts. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- History of First Kilraughts · First Kilraughts Presbyterian Church, drawing on S. Alex Blair
- Sweet Adversity: the story of First Kilraughts1971–2010 · First Kilraughts Presbyterian Church, S. Alex Blair book account
- Kilraughts Old Churchyard,26August2014 · Dorothy Arthur, original researcher and author
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2021-05-26. How this page was prepared.