Church of Ireland Church

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A mid 19thC granite church consisting of nave, chancel and entrance porch, set in a churchyard and aligned W-E on the E side of Church Hill.

Steeply pitched natural slate roof with crested terracotta ridge, raised stone skews, and two small square-in-section metal vents. Advanced chamfered eaves course. Cast-iron half-round gutters (but ogee to porch) those to nave now missing. To W gable apex is a finely dressed granite bellcote with pitched coping and moulded cornice, all supported on moulded kneelers. Bell niche is cusped with a trefoil opening above. Surmounted by a diamond-shaped cloverleaf stone cross. To E gable is a granite trefoil finial.

All walls are squared granite blocks laid irregularly. All windows are plainly glazed lancets set in stepped chamfered surrounds and are covered with metal security grilles (unless otherwise stated). All buttresses are two-stage – the top of the first-stage forms a sloping cill course and the top of the second-stage has five off-sets.

Principal W gable has a buttress at either side. To centre are two windows and a pointed oval louvred opening above; its head rests in the apex of a flush voussoired relieving arch over the two windows below. Apex has a trefoil niche.

Each side elevation is four openings wide and has five buttresses detailed as before. S elevation has a projecting entrance porch set between the second and third buttresses (from left). All other openings are windows.

Porch is detailed as church and its roof rises almost to eaves level. South-facing gable is supported to either side by a single tapering buttress and contains the entrance door (now infilled with concrete blocks) which is set within a moulded stone reveal with stepped surround and hood mould. Above, a granite datestone reads ‘1866’. To apex is a small trefoil lattice framed window. Right and left cheeks are blank.

N elevation is abutted by a lean-to sacristy at extreme left end (see later); the buttress here rises above eaves level to form a chimney.

E gable has a buttress to either end and is abutted by a five-sided chancel, detailed as church (but with hipped roof). Each face has a lancet window with cusped head except that to S, which is blank, and that to N, which is abutted by the sacristy.

Sacristy:
Detailed as church with a monopitched natural slate roof sloping to N. N face is blank. Left cheek has a cusped lancet. Right cheek has two t+g sheeted doors set in shouldered chamfered openings. That to right is higher and is accessed by a number of granite steps (now eroded).

Setting:

The church is set within a churchyard and enclosed from the road by a squared granite boundary wall with saddle coping. It is accessed by a pair of wrought-iron gates supported on square-in-section granite gate piers with oversailing pyramidal coping. Churchyard contains a number of 19thC memorials, notably a large memorial with shrouded urn at SW in the churchyard. This is dedicated to the employees of Lord Clermont (d1887) and reads “FATHER IN THY GRACIOUS KEEPING LEAVE WE NOW THY SERVANTS SLEEPING”.

Historical information

Although a church is depicted at this spot on both the 1835 and 1861 OS maps, the present structure dates from 1866. It also appears as ‘new church finished’ in the 1866 Valuation Revision book entry.

Primary sources:
1. OS 1st edition map, 1835, Co Armagh, sheet 29 (PRONI OS 6/2/29/1).
2. OS 2nd edition map, 1835, Co Armagh, sheet 29 (PRONI OS 6/2/29/2).
3. Valuation Revision book, 1866 (PRONI VAL 12B/15/15A, p.88).
4. Datestone on church.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A pleasantly sited granite church set within a churchyard overlooking the Ring of Gullion. Although its has lost most of its internal furnishings, it retains much of its external character and is a significant feature here.