St MacCartans RC Church

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Simple gabled cruciform RC church of 1787, with porch and vestry lean-to of c.1987. The church is set on the S side of the Loughinisland Road, to the W side of the small hamlet of Loughinisland, c.4.5 miles W of Downpatrick.

The front entrance is located in the NE face of a relatively recently added (c.1987) gabled porch addition. The pointed arch door opening has sandstone dressings and the reveals have in / out quoins and the head has a moulded dripstone. The door itself is timber sheeted with the ‘tympanum’ filled with a carved panel. The porch gable is surmounted by a small stone cross. The side faces of the porch each have a small pointed arch window with plain smooth cement surrounds. The main NE gable is surmounted by a bell-cote

The gables of the NW & SE transepts each have a ‘Y’ tracery gothic window over a recessed door opening each with a modern glazed door. Each gable has a small cross mounted on the apex of the gable. The SE gable has a short flight of stairs rising to a small landing and a modern steel handrail. The side walls of the three wings (NW, NE & SE) each have two ‘Y’ tracery gothic windows. The openings each have smooth cement surrounds and all windows have a polycarbon plastic sheeting covering the windows.

The SW ‘chancel’ wing is much shorter than the other three. Each of the short side walls has a pointed arch window. The upper portion of the gable has three pointed arch windows, the centre window is the tallest . To the lower section of the gable is a small lean-to extension (housing the vestry). The SE face is blank. The SW face has three evenly spaced modern windows while the NW face has pointed arch headed door opening. Above the door opening is a decorated date panel of 1787. This panel has been removed from another part of the façade- one might have expected it to be placed in a more prominent position.

The façade is finished in a dry dash. The roof is covered in Bangor blue slate. The gables all have painted barge boards and the eaves have slight overhangs. To the intersection of the cruciform roofs is a lead fleche. The fleche is four-sided and has a tall pyramidal cap and battered base. To each side there is a pointed arch recess. and the whole rests on a battered base.

Historical information

This church was built in 1787 by Rev. Patrick MacCartan. It is shown on the OS map of 1834 much as present, but without the porch ‘chancel’ and vestry extensions. The OS Memoirs of 1836 state that at that point the building contained 102 seats ‘which are each capable of accommodating six individuals, making a total of 612. The floor is paved with stone after the manner of a road and the whole concern is in very good repair’.

By 1858 a porch had been added as well as the short ‘chancel’ wing to the south-west (giving the uneven cruciform plan). The church remained in this shape until 1986-87, when the lean-to vestry was added and the porch enlarged slightly. Internally, a ceiling was added in 1906, but this was removed in 1987, exposing the trusses once again. The glazed internal porches were added in 1987 also.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI OS/6/3/37/1 OS map, Down sh 37, 1834
2 PRONI VAL/1B/387 1st valuation, Loughinisland, 1836
3 Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams ‘Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland: Parishes of Co Down IV’, (QUB 1992) [1836], p.95
4 PRONI OS/6/3/37/2 OS map, Down sh 37, 1858
5 PRONI 2nd valuation, Loughinisland, c.1860 [in print]

Secondary sources
1 ‘St Macartan’s Church Loughinisland- Bicentenary 1787-1987 (Local publication, 1987)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Simple gabled cruciform RC church of 1787, with porch and vestry lean-to of c.1987. The façade is now finished in dry dash. Not of special architectural interest.