St Mary’s Cof I Church, Kilmood Church Road, Kilmood, Killinchy, Newtownards, County Down, BT23 6SA

St Mary's Church of Ireland in Kilmood is a beautifully sited and elegant Gothic church built between 1820 and 1822, whose sophisticated urban character seems incongruous in this rural hamlet. The stone-built church stands on a rise on the east side of Church Road, occupying the site of a medieval predecessor, and comprises a gabled main body with a square tower and spire rising from the west gable.

The tower is three storeys high with reducing buttressed piers at each corner, rising to a castellated parapet embellished with tall urn corner features. The octagonal stone spire above terminates in a small ball. All four faces of the tower at second-floor level display 'Y' tracery Gothic windows. The first floor carries a clock face with label moulding on the south and west sides, and a small Gothic window to the north. The ground floor features tall 'Y' tracery Gothic windows to the west and north faces, with a Gothic door opening adorned with label stops enclosing a timber door decorated with Gothic tracery. This entrance is reached by a twelve-step flight of stone steps with simple wrought iron handrails on either side.

The long south wall displays three 'Y' tracery windows with moulded drip stone and label stops. The east wall contains a Gothic window opening with four tall lancets surmounted by a quatrefoil, with the gable parapet crowned by a small decorative stone finial. The exterior finishes vary: the south wall, remainder of the east wall, and tower are rendered in random rubble (squared rubble to the tower) with dressed sandstone to quoins, door and window openings, a plain base course, and a decorative eaves course. Plaques on the west and south faces of the tower are believed to depict Lord Londonderry and the Gordon coat of arms.

The north wall presents an unusual aspect, being largely plain and almost entirely windowless save for a single roundel with label moulding, surmounted by a small gable feature incorporating a stone chimney stack. Below this sits a small gabled vestry extension—an unconventional siting that, whilst unusual, does not diminish the building's overall charm. The vestry's north face contains one rectangular window opening with two lancet windows, and its west face has a small Gothic arched door. The upper portion of the east face, along with the vestry and north wall, are finished in plain unpainted render.

The church was erected at a cost of just over £2,215, primarily through the efforts of David Gordon of Florida Manor, a local landlord engaged in a broader rebuilding scheme within the hamlet that included a schoolhouse, courthouse, and labourers' cottages. Gordon provided the bulk of the funding, supplemented by £900 from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, with the bell gifted by Lord Dufferin. Documentary evidence from the Gordon Family Papers (now at PRONI) records damage sustained in a storm in 1833 and severe damage in the great wind of January 1839, when the spire was blown off. The nave was re-roofed in 1907, and two years later lightning struck the spire, removing twenty courses of stone. The spire was subsequently rebuilt in 1910–11, at which time its height was reduced. The accompanying graveyard predates the present church, with the earliest discernible headstone dating from 1793.

The parish of Kilmood was united with that of Tullynakill around 1868, and both were joined with Killinchy in 1923. The church remains well maintained and largely original, with the listing extent including the church, gates, gate piers, and walling.