Derryloran Old Churchyard, corner of Sandholes Road and Drum Road, Cookstown, Co Tyrone

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A walled graveyard containing the ruins of a 17th century church, a number of vaults, and other memorial slabs, dating from the 17th to the 19th centuries.

It stands on the south-western outskirts of Cookstown on a corner of two roads on a site overlooking the Ballinderry river.

The roofless church ruin is of rectangular plan and consists of two gables and two long side walls aligned east to west. The church is built of rubble stonework with roughly shaped quoins. The entrance is in the west gable in a low central porch.

The west gable has shaped kneelers at each extremity, and rises to the base of a bellcote at the apex. There is a central rectangular window opening with a timber lintel inserted. The projecting porch is gabled and contains a Gothic arched doorway constructed of two large chamfered arched stones. Within the porch there are two low stone bench seats along the side walls. The original entrance, in the centre of the west gable, consists of a plain semi-circular arched opening.

The north elevation contains one featureless window opening, now without a head. Near the west end of the wall a large roughly rounded stone projects, its significance or function uncertain but it may have been part of a porch connected with a now blocked up doorway.

The east gable has shaped kneelers at the extremities, the one at the south corner embellished with a carved entrelac motif. The gable contains a tall three-light window of finely cut stone in Perpendicular Gothic style consisting of three round-headed lancets surmounted by interesting Y-tracery set in a Gothic arched opening with a Gothic arched drip moulding. Some of this traceried window is replacement work of 1988.

The south elevation contains four rectangular window openings; the two to the west end have flat arched heads, probably dating from the 18th century; the two to the east end have projecting square drip mouldings.
In various places in the south, east and north walls, there are portions of incised or moulded stonework dating from an earlier, medieval period, here reused at random.

The interior of the church ruin is laid with gravel, and contains a vault for the Von Steiglitz family in the south-east corner, and a number of memorial slabs laid flat.

The Von Steiglitz vault is a gabled rectangular structure of stone, smooth cement rendered, lined and blocked. The roof is constructed of overlapping stone slabs, later smooth rendered. The front gable contains a cusped arched inscription panel in the main wall, with a carved sandstone armorial panel in the pediment above. The inscription commemorates Henry Lewis Von Steiglitz who died in 1824, and other members of the family.

In front of the vault and attached to its base is a flat stone slab inscribed to the memory of Walter Lecky who died in 1694. This is reputedly the earliest recorded memorial in the graveyard.

Built up against the outside of the church near the east end of the north wall is the vault of the Stewarts of Killymoon.
The Stewart vault is a rectangular structure of stone comprising a pedimented central block flanked by lower parapet-walled wings.

The central block has a front of ashlar sandstone with projecting pilasters at the extremities bearing crudely carved capitals, with a moulded cornice surmounted by a moulded triangular pediment. The pediment contains a now eroded inscribed plaque recording that it was erected in 1680 and repaired in what appears to be 1840, but could be 1848 or 1849. The wall below it contains a recessed rectangular panel below a broad lintel inscribed 'Stewart of Killymoon'. The panel is inscribed with the various members of the family interred here up to 1914.
The wings are constructed of snecked sandstone with a plain sandstone coping.

The graveyard contains other vaults including an unnamed one in the north-east corner, of uncommon design for a mausoleum in Northern Ireland, having curvilinear Dutch gables, probably dating from the early Victorian period but now in poor condition.

In the south-west corner stands the Adair vault, a gabled structure of rockfaced sandstone with segmental-arched windows to the sides and a large segmental-arched entrance which contains a gate-screen of wrought ironwork incorporating arrow-heads and stylised leafage. The same ironwork details appear in the window openings. Inside in its rear wall are plaques recording deaths of various members of the Adair family of Greenvale, Cookstown. Stylistically this vault appears to date from the mid-to-late 19th century.

The boundary wall which surrounds much of the graveyard is of rubble sandstone with rough stone copings. It contains the entrance gateway in the west boundary, set on axis with the entrance to the church. The gateway is set back in a recess, flanked by curved screen walls and consists of a pair of iron gates set between tall square piers of regular coursed sandstone blocks with moulded plinths, cornices, ball finials, and shaped brackets to the inner faces. A flight of stone steps leads up to the gateway. To the right of the main gateway is a small stile.

SETTING: Around the edge of much of the front boundary wall is a narrow grass verge. Around the south and east boundaries are overgrown hedges and scrub and trees. Beyond the northern boundary is the bank of the Ballinderry River which contains mature trees. The ground within the graveyard is grassed, crossed by a few paths.

Historical information

The ruined church in its present form dates from the early 17th century but includes some earlier stonework details which appear to date from the 12th century.
A church here was plundered in 1195 and the medieval parish church was on this site, and the names of many of the priests are known from the late 14th to the mid-16th centuries. Thus this church probably occupies the site of the pre-Norman church associated with St Luran.
The area was leased by Allan Cook around 1609 and he appears to have reused the old site for this new church which was reported in a survey of 1622 as "almost finished". It was damaged in 1641 and 1689 but continued in use until 1822 when a new church designed by John Nash was built in the main street of the town. The west porch here was added in the 18th century. The church is a monument in state care and was conserved in 1983-8.

The vault of the Stewarts of Killymoon was erected in 1680 and repaired sometime in the 1840s. The Von Steiglitz vault was built to commemorate a death of 1824. The oldest headstone is that inscribed for Walter Lecky who died in 1694.

The gate piers in the front boundary wall may be dated to the 18th century.

References - Primary Sources
1. OS Map of 1833.

Secondary Sources
1. S. Lewis, A topographical dictionary of Ireland (London, 1837), Vol 1, p 396.
2. J.B. Leslie, Armagh Clergy and Parishes (Dundalk, 1911), pp 211-214.
3. D.A. Chart ed., A preliminary survey of the ancient monuments of Northern Ireland (HMSO, Belfast, 1940), p 239.
4. O. Davies, 'Derryloran Church', Ulster Journal of Archaeology, 1942, pp 8-11.
5. UAHS, Dungannon and Cookstown (Belfast, 1971), p 36.
6. A.J. Rowan, The Buildings of Ireland: North-West Ulster (Harmondsworth, 1979), pp 217-218.
7. DOENI, Historic Monuments of Northern Ireland (Belfast, 1983), pp 57, 146.
8. C.J. Donnelly, Living Places (Belfast, 1997), pp 109-111.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Z. Rarity

Evaluation

This is an attractive graveyard of considerable historic interest, with origins in the early medieval period, which contains an important early 17th century now-ruined church of typical plan form which not only displays a rare example of fully developed Perpendicular Gothic tracery but also incorporates fragments of carved stonework of earlier centuries. While the church has been recorded as dating from 1622 it was probably a rebuilding of an earlier medieval church on this site.
Attached to it are two mausolea of prominent local families, both in forms of classical style, one commemorating the Stewarts of Killymoon which dates from the late 17th century but owes its present appearance to the 1840s, the other commemorating the Von Steiglitz family of Gortalowry, dating from the 1820s. A carved stone slab to Walter Lecky dating from 1694, while comparatively plain in appearance, is prominently sited in front of the Von Steiglitz vault and is of importance as a reminder of the century which has most impressed its character on this earlier site.
The gate piers, of a classical type, dating from the 18th century, provide a handsome entrance from the public road. Together the various structures of ruined 17th century church, the two 17th to 19th century vaults attached to the church, the 17th century Lecky slab inside the church, and the 18th century gateway and its flanking screen walls and front boundary walling demonstrate an historical development on an ancient site, and provide a crucial visual link with the past and associations with the origins of the town, as well as offering a varieity of interesting architectural elements in an unspoiled and picturesque setting.