With a catalogue heading such as that above, identifying this church should perhaps be a doddle(?) On the morning of the winter solstice, the true new year perhaps, we can look forward to longer days, brighter evenings and the Christmas seasons with renewed positivity. In Newgrange, just as this is being posted, crowds are gathering in hope of watching the spectacle of morning light illuminating the inner chamber of the 5,000 year old tomb. Wish you were there?

For ourselves we are glad that so many remained "here" for the solstace - and helped identify and date this image. Based on the names, [/photos/139877639@N08/ Rory_Sherlock] quickly suggested that we were up North (perhaps Antrim/Down), with [/photos/johnspooner/ John Spooner] taking a similar tack to suggest St Cedma's (Inver parish) church in Larne County Antrim. [/photos/scorbet/ Sharon.corbet] was able to corroberate with a near identical (and crucially labelled) image from the Lawrence Collection. With location confirmed, [/photos/beachcomberaustralia/ BeachcomberAustralia] and [/photos/gnmcauley/ Niall McAuley] were eagle-eyed in spotting a grave dated to the mid-1870s in the image (helping refine the lower-bound of the date range), and suggesting an upper-bound based on works on the church's windows c.1880......

Photographers: Frederick Holland Mares, James Simonton

Contributor: John Fortune Lawrence

Collection: Stereo Pairs Photograph Collection

Date: Catalogue range c.1860-1883. Certainly after 1874 (grave marker date). Perhaps before c.1880 (windows)

NLI Ref: STP_2164