Donegore Parish Church, Donegore Hill, Donegore, Antrim, Co Antrim

Donegore Parish Church is a mid-Victorian Gothic Revival church in the Early English style, designed by John Boyd, one of the most prominent architects of his period in Ulster. As it stands, the building largely dates from 1871, when a tower, porch, chancel and vestry were added to an earlier nave, which itself received a new roof and new windows at the same time. The restoration and additions were paid for by Henry Adair of Loughanmore at a cost of £1,600, carried out by builders Messrs McManus to Boyd's designs. The nave itself was originally built in 1659 on the site of a Presbyterian meeting house of uncertain date, recorded as being in a decayed state by 1622. A church was recorded on the site as early as the 14th century, and the site may have been established earlier still, though no medieval fabric survives. The building continued in Presbyterian use until 1688, when it was restored to Anglican use only. Alterations in 1817 curtailed its length by 21 feet. By 1838, the Ordnance Survey Memoirs described it as "an uninteresting-looking building without tower or belfry, having merely a little arch, from which a bell is suspended, elevated on its western gable... perfectly plain and without any architectural ornament." The church occupies a conspicuous hilltop position and forms a local landmark.

The building consists of a nave, chancel, and a three-storey western tower with a steep pyramidal slated roof, together with a small vestry on the south side of the chancel and a small gabled porch on the north side of the tower. The main entrance is through the north porch. Roofs are covered in Bangor blue slates. The walls are of basalt rubble throughout: the nave walls incorporate large boulders, while the later tower and chancel walls are rock-faced. Small shaped sandstone corbels support the gutters. Sandstone weatherings finish the gable copings, and both the nave and chancel gables are surmounted by short square sandstone chimneys with earthenware pots. The tower roof is surmounted by a wrought iron finial, and the north porch is finished with a fleur-de-lys coping stone.

The nave has two windows in each side wall: Gothic-arched lancets with block sandstone dressings flush with the wall face. One stained glass window survives in each side wall; original glazing has been removed from the remaining windows. These two nave stained glass windows were relocated here in 1984 from the private chapel in the coach and stable yard at Loughanmore, when that building was converted to domestic use. The chancel has a tall three-light east window with similar block sandstone dressings to those of the nave, but with the addition of a hood mould and foliated label stops; the original stained glass has been removed, though stained glass was added to the east window in 1875 at the expense of Henry Adair. The vestry's south wall contains a rectangular ledged timber door set in a stop-chamfered block sandstone flush surround, with a small 2-over-2 rectangular timber sliding sash window with horns set to its right in a chamfered block sandstone surround.

On the east wall of the vestry, a memorial plaque is set into the masonry, appearing to be red-tinted Bath stone set in a moulded granite surround on a projecting basalt base. Its inscription reads: "Close to this place lyeth the body of Mr Andrew Stewart, Minister of Donegore who died in Septr. 1634 aged 36 years. Also his son in law Mr Thomas Crawford, Minister of Donegore who died December 1670 aged 45 years."

The tower has three storeys with three-stage full-height angle buttresses. A small semi-circular stair turret with stone weatherings to its semi-conical roof rises part-way up the south side of the tower, set into the angle where tower meets nave. The turret has small rectangular windows at its lower levels. The ground floor of the tower's west wall contains a rectangular window with block sandstone dressings; the first floor contains a pair of Gothic-arched lancets. At the belfry stage, each face of the tower contains a central Gothic-arched lancet with hood mould and foliated label stops, fitted with timber louvres. The bell is inscribed "J. Murphy, Founder, Dublin, 1871."

The north porch opens through an archway in its north gable, formed with recessed sandstone colonnettes with carved capitals, a hood mould, and foliated label stops. This archway is fitted with a High Victorian decorative wrought iron gate, which leads into the open entrance porch floored with stone flags. The rear wall of the porch contains a Gothic-arched entrance to the church interior, with double doors of varnished ledged pitch pine fitted with ornate decorative wrought iron hinges and ironwork handles. The outer arch bears an incised Latin inscription, "Domus mea Domus Orationis," meaning "My house is the house of prayer." The west wall of the north porch contains a blind rectangular window opening with chamfered sandstone block dressings.

The interior walls of the open porch are lined with marble memorial plaques up to dado level. A projecting stone dado moulding, appearing to be Bath stone, is carried on carved stone corbels of foliated form and also depicting human heads, one in the guise of a medieval knight. These corbels support stone transverse ribs of a Gothic plaster vaulted ceiling, with carved stone bosses to the ridge depicting the armorial bearings of the Adair family. The dado panelling to the right commemorates Henry Adair Esquire, Deputy Lieutenant and Justice of the Peace, of Loughanmore, who died on 6th April 1888, and who restored the church and built the tower in 1871, along with other members of the family. The dado panelling to the left commemorates Captain Charles Adair of Lochanmore, who in 1655 entered into bonds for the maintenance of the minister of this parish and died in 1686, as well as other members of the family.

The church stands in a rural area on a sloping site with distant views over the surrounding countryside. It is approached along a short cul-de-sac off a minor road, within its own grounds. Boundary walls all around are of basalt rubble with basalt rock copings. The entrance gateway to the churchyard is in the east boundary wall, comprising a pair of square basalt rubble piers with basalt rock copings and a pair of wrought iron gates. At the south-west corner, the south boundary wall stops and is abutted by a plain wrought iron railed enclosure, which in turn connects with a basalt rubble vault or corpse house; the west boundary wall abuts the north gable of this structure. At the west end of the north boundary, a sizeable section of the wall has been rebuilt in concrete blockwork with smeared pointing and concrete copings.

The sloping grassy graveyard contains 18th, 19th, and 20th century memorials. Of particular note are the following. A 19th century railed enclosure with basalt rubble plinth walls is situated adjacent to the south-east corner of the church; its gate bears an iron armorial shield showing the Adair arms and is inscribed "The Ancient Burying Place of the Adair Family," though it is of no special architectural interest. A plain recumbent stone slab to the south of the vestry door is inscribed: "This is Mr Stewart and Mr Crawford's Burying Place mentioned in the opposite marble. Here lyeth the body of Thomas Boyd, who departed this life ye 16 of May 1737." A stone slab bearing two carved paterae, to the south of the west end of the nave, commemorates Jane Alet, who died in 1746. A small stone slab with a scrolled top, to the south of the tower, commemorates Rhoda Beggs, wife of John Anochr, who died in 1737. A stone slab with a scrolled top and a carved armorial rear face, to the south-west of the tower, commemorates the Reverend Hugh Scot, minister, who died in 1736. Two graves to the south of this is a comparable stone slab with a scrolled top and carved armorial rear face commemorating Margaret Craig, wife of Francis Scot, who died in 1741, though it is broken and portions have been lost. A further 19th century railed enclosure with basalt plinth walls is situated to the north of the tower porch; its gate also bears an iron armorial shield with the Adair arms, inscribed "The Burying Place of the Adair Family," though again of no special architectural interest. To the east of this is a sandstone-dressed basalt plinth-walled and iron balustraded enclosure set against the north boundary wall of the graveyard, containing a marble plaque commemorating Sir Samuel Ferguson, who died in 1886. Ferguson was President of the Royal Irish Academy, Deputy Keeper of the Public Records of Ireland, and a prominent Irish poet. The enclosure and plaque are of no special architectural interest. The church and graveyard lie within the area of a recorded historic monument.