CARAREAGH

District of Cary and Dunluce Address:- Freemasons' Hall 146 Causeway Road Bushmills BT57  8SX

Carareagh No. 374, was granted its Warrant on the 5th of November 1855. This is the smallest hall in Carey and Dunluce and measures 17ft by 29ft on the outside walls. It was built in 1872 and is a one storey semi detached building, pebble dashed with what it known locally as Ballycastle dash, which is a light gravel washed into the nearby coastline, close to Ballintoy Harbour. The building consists of a small entrance porch and main hall which seats about 45 at total capacity. Needless to say when this takes place the ritual that we Masons know as Perambulating the Lodge cannot be enacted. There are several items of interest in the hall including two beautiful old Masonic Beer Jugs inscribed "Carareagh Masonic Lodge No. 374", dated 1898. They are very intricately designed with coloured Masonic symbols and the only other jugs like them that I know about are in the museum in Molesworth Street. There is a clear wine bottle with no date. It is a very curious ornament, filled with carved wooden Masonic symbols built inside the bottle as one would build a ship in a bottle. Other small items of interest include a soap stone carved in the shape of a horseshoe with Masonic symbols carved on it, including the compass and square. A silver level of great antiquity with a crudely carved Sun, a hand holding a trowel and a cable tow and of course a compass and square. There is also a very old collection of delft used by the Brethren many moons ago for a cup of tea or maybe something stronger, like some of the locally brewed poteen. Cararreagh was once noted for its tradition of having a goat tethered outside the front door of the Lodge Room.

Thanks to Irish Masonic Records v3

The Lodge meeting in Carareagh Masonic Hall:-