Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB11/12/015

Address :
St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church (aka Killyclogher Chapel) Old Mountfield Road Killyclogher Omagh Co. Tyrone BT79 0AX

Townland:
Killyclogher

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Survey 2:
B2

Date of Listing:
08/01/1981 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Church

Former Use
Church

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
121-13

IG Ref:
H4725 7374

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Owner Category

Church - RC

Exterior Description And Setting

A detached double-height stone Roman Catholic church with Gothic detailing, built 1879, renovated 2009, located at north of Old Mountfield Road. T-plan, facing east; transept to east, chancel projection to west, former sacristy to west, modern double-height gabled sacristy with linking block to south. Pitched natural slate roof, crested blue/black clay ridge tiles, replacement ogee-profile gutters on cut sandstone corbels, cut sandstone verges with crosses at apex. Walling is squared and tooled basalt (built to courses) over plinth, diagonal buttresses with sandstone quoins and off
setting to corners. Gothic stained glass lancets, splayed sandstone surrounds and flush sills, unless otherwise stated. Doors are gothic replacement vertically sheeted varnished timber, splayed sandstone surrounds. Principal (east) elevation is abutted by transept to centre. Exposed section has three windows to each side. Transept has two paired windows; single window to each cheek, left cheek also has door. South gable is abutted by linking block (of no interest) to centre; exposed section is detailed as transept gable. Rear (west) elevation is abutted by chancel projection to centre, former sacristy to right. Exposed section has two windows to right end and a single window to left end. Chancel gable has single gothic sandstone Geometric-tracery window (stained glass temporarily removed at time of survey); left cheek is blank; right cheek is entirely abutted by sacristy. Sacristy gable is blank, apex has cut sandstone chimneystack; left cheek abuts chancel, exposed section has two windows; right cheek has two windows. North elevation is detailed as south gable but with door to centre. Settimg:- The church is situated on an elevated site in a graveyard enclosed by roughcast boundary wall with saddleback basalt coping. Roof: Natural slate Walling: Basalt Windows: Stained glass RWG: Replacement metal gutters

Architects

Not Known

Historical Information

The church appears in its current form on the third edition OS map of 1905-6 and is captioned ‘St Mary’s RC Chapel’. The previous map of 1854 and 1833 shows an earlier church on the site. Valuation Revisions record the previous church under exemptions as the ‘R.C Chapel and graveyard’, which is valued at £12. In 1879 the valuation increases to £60 as the church was ‘rebuilt’. The occupier is revised to the ‘Roman Catholic Body’ in 1922. OS Memoirs mention two Catholic Chapels in the parish of Cappagh, ‘…one at Killyclogher, the other in Knockmoyle, north of the demesne’. (pg 18). Alistair Rowan in “North West Ulster” wrote in 1979: “Drumragh Catholic Church at Knocknamoe…is the old chapel of Omagh. Partly thatched and partly slated at the time of the Ordnance Survey Memoirs, it is now T-plan, with late Georgian galleries in each arm. High trussed roof and short sanctuary. Stained glass: crucifixion by Mayer & Co., 1904” of Munich (Rowan, p.450). The altar, stained glass window and a memorial plaque were installed in 1904 as gifts by the late Edward Boyle (d.1898). Boyle “is thought to have given in excess of £11,000 to the building of the Sacred Heart...” and provided that church with a window from Mayer & Co., as well. Boyle was “a local financier and owner of a Tobacco factory. He was one of Omagh’s wealthiest businessmen in the latter part of the nineteenth century” (Mitchell, p.160, 165). The graveyard has interred patients from the nearby Tyrone and Fermanagh County Hospital (HB11/15/004A), who were buried there up until around 1867 when the hospital's Residential Medical Superintendent recorded sometime between 1866-1867 that the parish priest had refused to bury anymore patients. Robert McKinley in his “Tyrone and Fermanagh Hospital: A Chronological History” assumes the reason was financial. The hospital had proposed a half-acre cemetery in 1861, perhaps at the instigation of the Killyclogher parish priest, but had decided against the expense. (McKinley, p67) References: Primary Sources 1. PRONI OS/6/6/35/1 -First Edition OS Map (1833) 2. PRONI OS/6/6/35/2 -Second Edition OS Map (1854) 3. PRONI OS/6/6/35/3 -Third Edition OS Map (1905-6) 4. PRONI VAL/12/B/41/26A-F -Valuation Revisions (1860-1923) 5. PRONI OS Memoirs. Vol 5. 1821,1823,1831-6 Secondary 1. Mitchell, Haldane, ed. "Images of Omagh and District." Vol. 7. 1999 2. Rowan, Alistair. “North West Ulster: Londonderry, Donegal, Fermanagh, and Tyrone.” Buildings of Ireland Series. Dublin: Penguin Books, 1979. 3. McKinley, Robert. “Tyrone and Fermanagh Hospital: A Chronological History” in Haldane Mitchell, ed. Images of Omagh and District. Vol. 7. Omagh: Rotary Club of Omagh, 1999, pp64-83.

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation D. Plan Form H-. Alterations detracting from building J. Setting

Historic Interest

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

Evaluation

A detached double-height stone Roman Catholic church with Gothic detailing, built 1879 and renovated 2009. The church, which was “rebuilt” c.1879 on the site of an earlier chapel, is well proportioned, finely ornamented and retains an interesting T-plan. It is also well-sited in its graveyard. Although some original interior elements survive including a fine exposed roof structure, recent alterations have compromised its character. However, it remains a good example of a small rural church.

General Comments

Date of Survey

14 January 2009