Historic Buildings Record · Northern Ireland
St. Mary’s Church,
Ballaghanery Upper, Newry, Mourne and Down, Northern Ireland
The record
- Designation
- Record only (not listed)
- Grade
- Record Only
- Type
- Church
- Date of construction
- Pre 1600
- Address
- St. Mary’s Church,, Bloody Bridge,, Ballagh Road,, Newcastle,, Co Down, BT33 0LA
- Townland
- Ballaghanery Upper
- Council
- Newry, Mourne and Down
- Country
- Northern Ireland
- Coordinates
- 54.17104, -5.87474
- Date of survey
- 18 June 1997
- HB reference
- HB16/01/002
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries
Shown on 4 historical map sheets, the earliest the 1636 "Vltoniae Orientalis Pars" (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).
The Department's description
Exterior description and setting
A semicircular chancel arch in split Silurian rubble is all that remains upstanding. The outline of the nave walls can be seen in the ground. Ancient gravestones are dotted around the field.
Historical information
The date of the present structure is unknown. A Terrier of 1615 records “Capella de Balloch-enevry” hereabouts, and it may well be of medieval date. It is marked as a ruin in the 1834 OS 6” map. An 1844 etching shows stonework above the arch. The HMBB survey sheet states that the arch was rebuilt in the relatively recent past. UAHS states that this building was ‘one of several chapels attached to the medieval Plebnia of Kilkeel, the others in 1526 including Kilcoo, Kilmegan, Tamlaght and Greencastle.’
This is a scheduled monument Ref SMR 49:12
Primary Sources:
1. PRONI- OS 6/3/49/1 (1834 OS map).
2. HMBB Survey Card dated 11/04/1972.
Secondary Sources:
1. ‘Archaeological Survey County Down’ (Belfast 1966), pp.298-9.
2. ‘Papers read before the Down and Connor Church Architecture Society’ (Belfast 1845), pp.17-9.
3. T. Steele, ‘St. Mary’s Church and Bloody Bridge’, in Field excursions in Ulster, vol.3 (Ulster Folklife Society 1985), p.2.
4. P. Rankin, ‘Historic Buildings in the Mourne area of South Down’ (Belfast 1975), p.69..
Criteria for listing: architectural interest
Not listed
Criteria for listing: historic interest
Not listed
Evaluation
Scheduled monument (Down 49:12).
Nearby in the register
- 85 Ballagh RoadHouseunder 1 mi
- Bloody Bridge (new)Bridgeunder 1 mi
- Bloody Bridge, (old)Bridgeunder 1 mi
- Byre at DwellingFarm Buildingsunder 1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.