St. Malachy’s RC Church, Carrickmannon Road, Carrickmannan, Ballygowan, Co. Down, BT23 6JJ

St. Malachy's RC Church stands on the east side of Carrickmannon Road, approximately two miles south of Ballygowan, Co. Down. This single-storey church with a three-storey tower and transepts has undergone substantial recent renovation, giving it a sharp, almost new appearance.

The building was originally constructed in 1807 as a simple barn structure under the auspices of Reverend Hugh Green, on land granted by Lord Dufferin. A plaque on the south elevation of the nave confirms this date. The original rectangular nave was described in contemporary Ordnance Survey memoirs as "a plain, oblong building capable of holding from 150 to 200 people standing". The tower appears to have been added by 1858, while the transepts are likely post-1858 additions. The church belongs to the RC parish of Saintfield and was built as a subsidiary to the parish church there.

The tower is attached to the west gable and rises three storeys, topped with a shallow hipped roof of Italian appearance with an overhang and cross pinnacle. Early twentieth-century photographs show that the tower originally featured Gothic pinnacles, since removed. The entrance, located on the south face of the tower, consists of double timber-sheeted doors set in a pointed arch recess with Y-tracery fanlight and label moulding. At the second floor level on all faces is a pointed arch recess, louvered within. At first floor level on the west face is a pointed arch window. A simple moulded course continues around all faces of the tower.

The nave is finished in lined render and painted, with an eaves course. The north and south elevations each have three large pointed arch windows with Y-tracery and fairly simple stained glass. At the east end are transepts. The larger northern transept contains a large semicircular arch-headed door with double timber-sheeted doors and a large semicircular fanlight on its west face, with a small lean-to projection and window immediately to the right. The northern gable has modern-looking flat-arched window openings. The southern transept has a pointed arch window on its short west face, and three similar windows on its gable; however, a large boiler house projection has been added between the second and third windows. Adjacent to this transept is an apse with pointed arch windows to its east and north faces. The rear east gable is blank.

The church is covered with Bangor blue slates with decorative red clay ridge tiles and has a slight roof overhang. Metal (possibly aluminium) rainwater goods are present. Late Victorian-looking iron gates stand at the roadside to the west of the church. A graveyard lies to the north.

Most Victorian Gothic detailing has been removed in recent renovation. The interior has an overwhelmingly plain modern feel, entirely in keeping with the sharp external appearance. Much of the original architectural character has been lost, particularly the pointed pinnacles of the tower.

Historical records indicate that a medieval church once stood a short distance to the east, in Kilcarn townland, the site of which has been used as a cemetery since at least 1757, though nothing of the church itself remains. A small RC church marked on the 1833 Ordnance Survey map in Ballynichol townland, near the Horned Cairn, appears to have been abandoned by 1858.