Duneane Parish Church

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A double-height single-cell vernacular Church of Ireland church, built 1729, located on the east side of Duneane Road.

Rectangular-on-plan, facing west; gabled porch to west gable, vestry to right end of north elevation. There is an attached modern lean-to boiler shed to west (of no interest).

Pitched natural slate roof, blue/black clay roll-top ridge tiles, masonry verge coping. Walling is roughcast. Pointed-arch and lancet windows; all lancets are cast-iron diamond-lattice-glazed casements with margin lights; pointed-arch windows are timber Y-tracery lattice and sandstone geometric-tracery with stained glass.

West gable is centrally abutted by porch and surmounted by a segmental arch-headed bellcote; round-headed aperture, bell. Exposed section is blank, wall-mounted painted stone plaque to left end. Porch has central lancet; left cheek has central pointed-arch-headed painted timber diagonally boarded double-leaf door in painted smooth-rendered chamfered architrave.

North elevation is two windows wide; abutted to right end by single-bay vestry with catslide roof. Exposed section has one Y-tracery window to left, one geometric tracery to right. Vestry elevation is blank, left cheek has lancet, right cheek has pointed-arch-headed sheeted painted timber door.

East gable has a central double-height geometric-tracery window.

South elevation has a sundial to left end; Y-tracery window to left, geometric-tracery window to right.

The church is situated in a graveyard enclosed by rendered boundary walls and hedges; access from Duneane Road is via a rendered boundary wall-lined long gravel drive with conical gate pillars and modern gates to both ends. The graveyard to west is formally arranged with burials on a grid and central avenue flanked by yew trees. The graveyard has numerous fine eighteenth-century gravestones, several sculpted table tombs, chest tombs, slab tombs and many wrought-iron and cast-iron railings around family plots.

Roof: Pitched natural slate roof
Windows: Pointed-arch-headed painted timber Y-tracery casements
Walling: Roughcast
Rainwater goods: Half-round cast-iron gutters

Historical information

The present nave was built 1729 to the east of an earlier monastic chapel of ease. The church is believed to be a quarter the length of the earlier chapel, which belonged to the Abbey of Kells, County Meath. The earlier structure was demolished c.1700 but fragments survive, such as the east gable foundation and the stone plaque mounted on the west gable, which was originally located with the floor pavement. The Y-tracery windows are believed to date from c.1800; while the geometric-tracery windows with stained glass probably date from the 1878 addition of the porch and vestry. The boiler shed was added c.1990.
The present nave was built 1729 at the east of an earlier monastic chapel of ease (Brett p. 35). The church is believed to be a quarter the length of the earlier chapel, which belonged to the Abbey of Kells, County Meath. The earlier structure was demolished c.1700 but fragments survive (SM7 file Ant 042:010), such as the east gable foundation and the stone plaque mounted on the west gable, which was originally located with the floor pavement. The Y-tracery windows are believed to date from c.1800; while the geometric-tracery windows with stained glass probably date from the 1878 addition of the porch and vestry. The boiler shed was added c.1990.

The church appears on all OS maps from 1833, and also on the 1782 Lendrick’s Map. The 1836 OS Memoirs record the church to be “50 feet long and 19 feet wide, and containing accommodation for 227 persons. It was erected in 1729.” It was originally built of mud (p.100). Additionally, the memoir recalls a tradition that St. Patrick (A.D. c.378 to c.493) built a church on or near the present site.

The 1837 Memoir dates the west gable bell to c.1827: “added about ten years previous at a cost of £7.” Recalling another tradition, the memoir claims the church was founded 1400 years before (around c.500) by St. Bridget (c.451-524). Earlier foundations were referred to in 1837 with a description of the east gable being constructed on a portion of ancient wall, which protrudes from the gable base. “According to tradition, the old wall at the east gable and the two present side walls belonged to a monastic building that extended to four times the present length of the church. The entrance gate of the yard was then close to the door... still two large blocks of stone laid down like an unfinished cromlech... used as a horseblock by the monks and their successors.”

At or before c.1540 during the general Dissolution of Monasteries, the chapel was separated from monastic ownership and become a parish church. After the Siege of Derry (1689), landowner Major Dobbin demolished three quarters of the church because it was too large for the remaining congregation. The east gable was rebuilt and the side walls repaired. These walls were recorded as decayed in 1837. The rector that year was the Rev. George McCartney, and the curate was Rev. William Boyes.

In the brief analysis of early-eighteenth-century rural vernacular Church of Ireland churches in Towers Spires and Pinnacles (2003), Sam Hutchinson refers to Duneane as one of a few surviving examples from this period (p.48). Records for the church are available for baptisms from 1879, marriages from 1846 and burials from 1878.

The Churchyard:
Graves were placed over the foundations of the ancient buildings; while the cylindrical gate piers date from the reign of Queen Anne (r.1702-1714).

The oldest grave visible is the chest tomb dedicated in memory to the Dobbin family, dated 1716, and flanked by many heraldic-crested Dobbin family chest tombs and gravestones; the oldest gravestone visible to northeast is in memory of Art McCleaver (c.1697-1759). Numerous gravestone appear to be earlier but are illegible.

Despite the rural location, Duneane graveyard bears evidence of the world outside with one gravestone inscription reading: “To the memory of John Bones, who died on the 1st of February 1799, aged 66 years, as a tribute of filial gratitude to one of the best of parents, this stone is erected by an affectionate son, who after a long absence from his native country visits the grave of his father with feelings of undiminished regret 1st September 1822, John Bones 1st February 1799.”

References:

Primary Sources

1. Lendrick’s Map, 1782
2. PRONI OS/6/1/42/1, 1st edition OS Map, Co. Antrim, no. 42, 1833.
3. PRONI OS/6/1/42/2, 2nd edition OS Map, Co. Antrim, no. 42, 1857.

Secondary Sources

1. OS Memoirs of Ireland, Parishes of Co Antrim VI 1830, 1833, 1835-38 (Southwest Antrim) Vol 19.
2. Sam Hutchinson, Towers Spires and Pinnacles: A History of the Cathedrals and Churches of the Church of Ireland (Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland: Wordwell, 2003).
3. Brett, C.E.B 'Buildings of County Antrim', UAHS, 1996
4. Northern Ireland Environment Agency, NISMR Ant 042:010 SM7 file (unpublished)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
E. Spatial Organisation
H+. Alterations enhancing the building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
Z. Rarity

Evaluation

A rare well preserved example of an early-eighteenth-century rural vernacular single-cell church. The church graveyard and avenue setting is preserved and fragments from earlier structures are incorporated into the building. Although the church was added to in the late nineteenth century, two earlier windows remain and now provide a visible contrast to the two prominent building phases. The preserved interior and furnishing appears to date from this second late-nineteenth-century phase.