Meeting House
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The Presbyterian Church or “Meeting House” was the focal point of the Ulster Presbyterian community.
The building at the Folk Park is a replica of the thatched crossroads Meeting House at Mountjoy in which Thomas Mellon worshipped as a boy.
He described it in his autobiography as “The venerable old structure built in the shape of a T and roofed with straw thatch”. He remembered a visit with his father and referred to the pew where he had sat and the little round pulpit from which Mr. McClintock delivered his lengthy sermons (click images to enlarge).
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‘There it was, a square box with a hinged door, a narrow board seat and very high back.
I well remembered that the backs of the pews were so much higher than my head that I could not see over. And there too about half way up on the opposite wall still remained the little round pulpit with a sounding board some six or eight feet above it.
Eight extremely narrow winding steps led up to this sacred desk of a place. The floor was flagstone and the pews and pulpit of hand worked deal boards, a species of yellow pine’.
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