Sacred Heart Church, Carrickbeg Road, Toneel North Td, Boho, Co Fermanagh, BT74 8BF

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Freestanding rendered Roman Catholic single-cell type church with ashlar stone bellcote to east, built 1832, substantially renovated 1913 (datestone), set in a churchyard and located on the west side of Carrickbeg Road, Boho. Original vestry to north-west extended with single-storey toilet block to west gable.

Pitched natural slate roof with overhanging exposed painted timber rafter ends; painted cast-iron rainwater goods to church and vestry and plastic rainwater goods to toilet block; tall red-brick chimneystack to vestry with concrete cap and clay pot. Walling is roughcast rendered over rubble stone, with smooth-rendered quoins, plinth and string course; sandstone coping to gables and rock-faced sandstone dressings and belfry. Window openings to church are pointed-arch headed with splayed sandstone reveals and sills having leaded stained glass windows; square-headed window opening to vestry with concrete sill and bi-partite 1/1 timber sliding sash window; square-headed fixed lights with concrete cills and frosted glass to toilet block; bellcote opening is pointed-arch headed with splayed reveals and sill.

Principal elevation faces east with engaged limestone breakfront, shouldered and topped with bellcote surmounted by a sandstone Celtic cross finial and containing a single copper bell. Entrance located to base of breakfront, comprising a pointed-arch splayed stone door surround with deep reveals. The door is double-leaf and oak sheeted, having six panels with stop-end chamfered mouldings, woodgrained finish and simple ironmongery, raised on a granite step. Central triple lancet window to breakfront with larger flanking single lancets to main walling.

South elevation has four equally-spaced lancet windows. At the centre of the elevation is an inset marble plaque recording the renovation of the church in 1913.

West elevation sandstone coping to gable surmounted by Celtic cross finial. Central triple lancet window above stringcourse. Abutted by flat-roofed toilet block comprising rectangular volume with entrances to west and south and six windows.

North elevation matches south elevation, without marble plaque, and is abutted to west by vestry. Vestry comprises original narrow rectangular portion, extended to west. Entrance to east comprising replacement sheeted timber door with leaded glass light and fanlight; rear entrance to south cheek. Painted timber sliding-sash window with frosted glass to north.

The church is set on a sloping wedge-shaped site above the Carrickbeg Road on high ground overlooking the surrounding countryside and Lough Erne to east. It sits within a historic churchyard with memorial monuments from the eighteenth to twenty-first centuries, and possibly earlier, planted with yew trees and bounded by mature tree boundaries to north-west and south. Near the south-west corner of the church is the Boho Cross comprising the shaft base of a sandstone Celtic High Cross, possibly from the tenth century. The site is partially bounded to the south and east by a low rendered wall with concrete coping. The entrance is to the south comprising rendered two gate piers with incised crosses, chamfered shoulders and polygonal caps, flanked by short stretches of screen wall. Piers flank painted cast-iron vehicular gate with pedestrian gate to right-hand side. Second entrance to south-east comprising modern flight of steps with concrete plinth walls and tubular steel handrails.

Roof: Slate
Walling: Roughcast
Windows: Leaded lancets
RWG: Cast iron

Historical information

The original Roman Catholic chapel at Boho stands on a site of some antiquity and predates the OS first edition (1834) by two years, having been originally constructed in 1832, as indicated by a memorial tablet to Rev. Nicholas Smyth, located on the nave wall. The building is shown on the first edition as a simple rectangular volume and a Monument, presumably the surviving High Cross, captioned beside it. By the second edition of 1857, the chapel is T-shaped with an extension to the north, and various structures have been built in the grounds nearby. Griffith’s Valuation records the chapel valued at £10 10s. In 1913 the church was substantially refurbished or rebuilt in its current form by James Louis Donnelly, though this is not reflected in any change in the valuations. Donnelly was a Dublin-based architect from Omagh who carried out refurbishments in RC churches in Co. Tyrone at Omagh, Killyclogher, Knockmoyle and Drumcree. The third edition of 1905-06 records the “stone cross” and confirms that the surrounding perimeter was used as a graveyard. The church lies on a historic religious site in Toneel North which is thought to have originally had pagan significance. It was possibly the site of an early-Christian nunnery founded by St Faber, a local holy woman who reputedly introduced Christianity to the area. Various local sites are associated with her including St Faber’s bullan (rock cut basin) and St Faber’s well, and she is the church’s patron saint with a stained glass window in the building. This foundation later became a parish church or abbey before the reformation, with a vicar of Boho, Malachy O’Gowan, recorded in 1432, and the site is thought to hold a historic Christian burial site. Donnelly suggests this had been abandoned by 1603 when it is recorded in the Annals of Ulster, and its only surviving element is thought to be a doorcase which was removed and incorporated into the new Church of Ireland parish church (HB12/11/038) in 1777. Shortly after 1777 a Mass-house was built to the south of the present site in Toneel North by the local Catholics, under the direction of Fr Patrick Thally, which is shown on the first edition map. This is thought to have become a school by the time that the worship moved back to the medieval site and the present church was built in the former graveyard in 1832 (Donnelly). Accompanying the new building, the Boho Cross (FER 210:014), possibly of 10th century origin and associated with the earlier site, was erected beside the church, connecting to the earlier history of the site. The cross may have been unearthed in pieces during the levelling of the site for the new church in the south-east corner of the old graveyard. Excavations have shown that the cross was erected over a charnel pit, possibly filled with the grave slabs and remains which had been disturbed in the building work (Donnelly).

References:
Primary
references:
PRONI OS/6/4/21/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey map (1834)
PRONI OS/6/4/21/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey map (1857)
PRONI OS/6/4/21/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey map (1905-06)
PRONI VAL/1/B/422 – Townland Valuation Field Book (1830s)
PRONI VAL/2B/4/15 – Griffith’s Valuation Field Book (c.1860)
PRONI VAL/12/B/26/22A-22E – Valuation Records (1864-1923)
Secondary references:
Rowan, A., “The Buildings of Ireland: Northwest Ulster” (Yale UP, 1979)
Crooks, Canon D.W.T. & Moore, Dean T.R. (eds.), “Clergy of Clogher” (Ulster Historical Foundation/ The Diocesan Council, 2006)

Online references:
http://www.parishofbotha.com/parish-churches/sacred-heart-church-boho/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boho,_County_Fermanagh
https://www.dia.ie/architects/view/1559/DONNELLY%2C+JAMES+LOUIS
https://www.dia.ie/works/view/5291/CO.+FERMANAGH%2C+BOHO%2C+CHURCH+OF+THE+SACRED+HEART+%28RC%29
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Faber
Donnelly, C. et al., “Data Structure Report: Boho High Cross, Toneel North, Co. Fermanagh”
https://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/CentreforArchaeologicalFieldworkCAF/PDFFileStore/Filetoupload,180960,en.pdf

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
U. Historic Associations
X. Local Interest
V. Authorship

Evaluation

Sacred Heart Church, Boho, is a simple Roman Catholic chapel, built 1832 and rebuilt or substantially refurbished in 1913, located on a historic Christian site west of the Carrickbeg Road. Externally it is plainly detailed and retains its original features with visual interest focused on the east elevation with its free-stone breakfront and bellcote dividing it into a tri-partite arrangement. Constructed on a single-cell plan with attached vestry, the church internally reflects the refurbishment date of 1913 and is mostly authentic, distinguished by an attractive timber truss roof, and a fine stained glass and timber vestibule. It is thought to be the only Early Christian site still in use for Catholic worship, and this sense of continuity is enhanced by being the only dedication to St Faber, the Celtic saint associated with the area. The chapel and graveyard setting are of social and historical interest, representing 200 years of Catholic worship on the modern site with the Boho Cross providing a visual reminder of the site’s broader historical and archaeological importance as a place of Early Christian and possible pagan worship.

General comments

Listing Query ref: HB12/LQ124