Mountjoy Meeting House Exterior

This section of the museum evokes the country way of life of rural Ulster in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The early Ulster-Scots Presbyterians would have worshipped in simple buildings similar to this authentic Presbyterian Meeting House, which was originally located at a crossroads only a few miles away.

Dating from the 1700s, this is where Thomas Mellon worshipped as a boy.  You can imagine the minister delivering his sermon from the pulpit, his voice amplified by the sounding board above.  

Thomas Mellon remembered that it was a “venerable old structure built in the shape of a T and roofed with straw thatch”.