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

Picturesquely perched on a rise on the east side of Church Road, in the hamlet of Kilmood, St Mary’ C of I Church is a stone built, gabled, gothic church of 1820-22, with a square tower and spire, all built on the site of a medieval church. Its sophisticated form lends the building an urban, rather than rural, air The spire is centred on the west gable and is three storey and has reducing buttressed piers to each corner rising to a castellated parapet with tall urn corner features. The tall octagonal stone spire terminates with a small ball feature. All four faces of the tower have a ‘Y’ tracery Gothic window to the second floor. The first floor has a clock face with label moulding to the south and west with and a small gothic window to the north face. The ground floor has a tall ‘Y’ tracery gothic window to the west and north faces with a gothic door opening with label stops enclosing a timber door with decorative ‘Gothic tracery’ The door is positioned at the head of a twelve step flight of stone steps with simple wrought iron handrails to either side. The long south wall has three ‘Y’ tracery windows with moulded drip stone and label stops. The east wall has one gothic window opening with four tall lancets surmounted by a quatrefoil. The gable parapet has a small decorative stone finial at the apex. The north wall comes as something of a shock in that it is largely plain and windowless. At the centre is a single roundel with label moulding, surmounted by a small gable feature which incorporates a stone chimney stack. Below the roundel is a small gabled vestry extension. To the north face it has one rectangular window opening with two lancet windows. The west face has a small gothic arched door opening with a plain sheeted timber door. The upper portion of the east face along with the vestry and the north face are all finished in plain unpainted render. The south wall, the remainder of the east wall and the tower are finished in random rubble (squared rubble to tower) with dressed sandstone to quoins, door and window openings along with a plain base course and a decorative eaves course. A plaques to the west and south faces of the tower are believed to depict Lord Londonderry and the Gordon’s coat of arms. The accompanying graveyard predates the present church, with the earliest discernible headstone from 1793.