Holy Trinity Church

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A small stone built neo-Gothic cruciform church with north west porch under bell tower and west gable fronting to Culmore Road. Gabled nave, Chancel and Transepts with a mixture of diagonal shouldered and squared buttresses. The church is built of local whinstone with sandstone dressings.

The plain west gable is dominated by a large four light pointed window with moulded hood. Each light cusped and three sextets above with mouchette in centre, sandstone barges and kneelers with sturdy diagonal buttresses, at south west corner. Barges terminate in squat finial. To the north of the west gable a square entrance porch with pointed door facing north and flanked by shouldered diagonal buttresses and narrow pointed lancet on each side wall. Above the nave eaves the square porch is broached above a string course to form an octagonal section with tiny narrow lancet in each alternate face. Each arris formed of sandstone quoins. Above the pendentive a deep weathered double string course begins the octagonal belfry, a pretty one with each facet decorated with a slim pointed louvred opening. Over the belfry the base of the smooth sandstone spire overhangs with triple moulded string course. The simple plain arrised spire ends in blunt point surmounted by a lightning conductor terminal.

The north side of the nave has two lancets and also the projection of the shallow transept with plain buttresses on either side. The wall of the nave extends a trifling distance on the other side of the transept before recessing to form the chancel, the north wall of which has two narrow lancets. The east gable has a central three cusped light to the un-hooded pointed window. The window has three cinquefoils above and is flanked on either side by shouldered diagonal buttresses. At the bottom of the wall there is a door to a room below.

Between the south side of chancel and south transept is the vestry with a square headed doorway squeezed in adjacent to the gable buttress. The vestry has a small pointed window on its south wall. The south transept is similar to the north with pointed sandstone faced relieving arch having within it an elongated mouchette.

North boundary wall contains semi-circular arched recess with well .Ground level falls quite steeply along this wall from Culmore Road. To the churchyard the wall maintains a constant height of 750mm approximately. This height repeats along Culmore Road where the wall is interupted by a cast iron railing. The entrance gates 1500mm high have cut sandstone piers with kneller stone heads surmounted on the north west by a fine cast iron lamp post rising a further metre. A second post not as ornate is mounted on the boundary wall opposite the church entrance. The gate matches the railing and is of cast iron. The church is sited within an approximately rectangular enclosure which falls east towards Culmore Point.

Historical information

Originally a Chapel of Ease of the parish of Templemore it was absorbed into Muff Co Donegal in 1916. The church of the Holy Trinity was designed in 1866 by John Guy Ferguson, who became diocesan architect, and built in 1867, subscribed by parishioners along with a grant from Ecclesiastical Commissioners. The Irish Society gave the ground and an endowment and donated the stained glass in the east window and the organ.The Irish Society also assisted with erection of front boundary wall in 1867. The lectern oak panelling and wooden wall memorial are a war memorial of 1914-18. The transept windows were donated by the Wylie family. This same family donated the Culmore new rectory for use of curate.

In 1933 the church was renovated with the following:

Retiling of chancel floor, passages and porch
Carved oak eagle lectern
Marble chancel steps
Oak Communion table (1934)

Right Rev Robert McNeil Boyd Bishop of Killale 1943-45 and Bishop of Derry 1945-58 is buried at the east side of the graveyard.

References:
Primary Sources:
OS Map 1st Edition 1830 Co. Londonderry sheet 14,
OS Map 2nd Edition 1853 Co. Londonderry sheet 14A,
OS Map 1904-5 Revision Co. Londonderry sheet 14A,

Secondary Sources:
Historical Narrative of Irish Society 1611-1915 p.63, 65 and 91
Leslie, Parishes & clergy of Derry & Raphoe p.171
JS Curl , The Londonderry Plantation 1610-1914 p.414

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A fine example of an Ecclesiastical Commission’s neo-Gothic style small rural Church of Ireland church in a solidly built robust manner, very well preserved with good internal fittings set in a historic late 17th century site. Around the church a well filled graveyard with the ruins of the late 17th century church. Fronting onto the Culmore Road a fine boundary wall, railings and gates.