Ardstraw Presbyterian Church

History

The church's own history records a monastic community founded at Ardstraw in the sixth century by St Eoghan, who is buried in the graveyard at Ardstraw, though the accounts it gives of the date of his death differ. The monastery was plundered and destroyed by John De Courcey in 1198 and was destroyed by fire on several occasions. In the early thirteenth century Ardstraw was the head of a diocese taking in north Tyrone and Derry, and was later united with Derry. Little of the monastery survives: the old church was demolished some time before 1813 when a road was constructed through the burial ground, and it is said that the graveyard wall is built from stones taken from the monastery. Tirloch Luineach O'Neill, killed at Strabane, was buried in the graveyard in 1595.

Ministers of Ardstraw Presbyterian Church are recorded from 1656, beginning with the Revd William Moorcroft.

Notable features

Two banners in the church mark the congregation's 350th anniversary, one lettered "1656 In the beginning GOD" and the other "2006 Great is Thy Faithfulness". The headstone of a former minister, the Revd Richard Laird, stands in Ardstraw New Cemetery.