St Columba's Knock Church of Ireland
This church was consecrated 13 June 1896 by Rt. Rev. Thomas Welland, Lord Bishop of Down, Connor & Dromore. Kings Road, at this time, was rural and not part of Belfast suburbia as today.
Before its erection, the parishioners worshipped at old Knock Church. In 1886, Rev. F. Graham, curate of Ballymacarrett, decided that worship in an old log mill was unsuitable and built an iron church on Kings Road. It was known as Knock Iron Church. It was decided in 1894 to replace this church with a new one on a site donated by Hon. R. Ward of Bangor Castle. The church was added to in 1900 & 1932.
"The building standing today is not the original building. The original building burned and this is the one built after that. The lectern and pulpit are of pink marble and sculptured by Joseph Holland of Holland House. He was a sculptor. Also the baptismal font was sculptured by Joseph Holland and given as a gift to the Sunday School class of his daughter Clara who died at age 18 in her memory. This is noted on the baptismal font. In 2000 when I made a return visit there had been an addition for a choir room along with vesting for acolytes and use by the altar guild. The new addition cost £100,000.00 plus. It is beautifully done as they matched the original building structure and stone." (Shirley Harland)
(Old Knock Parish Church ruins can still be found in Knock townland, 100 yards north-west of Knock Road at the top of the hill in Knockmount Park near the intersection with Sandown Road - Entrance from Knockmount Park. This ruined church was the main Church of Ireland in Knock parish until it combined with Breda to become Knockbreda parish in 1658. It was called the church of Cave Columkille and it wasn't a very big church.)
St. Columba’s is situated on the King’s Road between the Sandown Road and the Knock Road in East Belfast. It can be approached from Belfast City Centre following signs for Newtownards turning right at Sandown Road in Ballyhackamore and then left into Kings Road. Travelling from Belmont on the Dual Carriageway on the outer ring road. Cross the Knock intersection and turn right into Kings Road heading City bound several hundred metres until St. Columbas is approached. Travelling from South Belfast and Castlereagh on the outer ring road, turn city bound (left) at the intersection of Kings Road and Knock Road.
The Church Micro IE series is open to everyone; if you have a church you would like to place a cache at then please contact THE_Chris through Geocaching.com. This is to keep track of the numbers of the churches and give you the general format for the cache page. In the UK there are thousands in the series so we have some catching up to do! Also, if you currently have a published cache at a church that you would like to include in the series, get in contact and we can add it.