Monday 12 May 2014

All Saints’

During a recent 40 miles jaunt, 'The Raleigh' and I stopped off at the Parish Church of All Saints’ Eglantine, near Lisburn.

Originally built as a private chapel for the Mulholland family of Eglantine House as a memorial to St Clair Kelburn Mulholland, one of the family who founded the York Street Spinning Mills in Belfast, and his son, also named St Clair.

The church is approached through a group of twelve closely cut yew trees known as the twelve apostles.

During the Second World War, the church was surrounded by buildings, which were part of the Long Kesh aerodrome that stretched to Sprucefield.

Despite being situated relatively close to the M1 motorway, it's a quiet place for reflection and at the rear of the church is a well-kept graveyard where twenty-one Commonwealth Air Force Men who were based at Long Kesh and who lost their lives during the war, were laid to rest.