The sisters were born in West Yorkshire, England where you can still visit Brontë Country. However, their family originated in beautiful county Down in Northern Ireland, the Bronte Homeland. Their father Patrick Brontë had been a preacher and a teacher at the tiny village of Drumballyroney.
The old church on the summit of 450 ft hill, was built in 1770 (see above left ) and was described in 1836 as a plain building capable of holding about 300 people. It is 30 feet to the north of where the even 'older' church stood. The Glebe House is a little to the north east of the church near the new church. It stood proudly on the little hill and one of its earliest marriages was that of Hugh Bronte and Alice McClory, grandparents of the famous Bronte sisters, who eloped here from Emdale in 1776. It was abandoned & left roofless in 1886.
The school where Patrick taught still stands and has been restored and functions as a little museum.
