Reformed Presbyterian Church, Hawthorn's Lane, Rathfriland, Newry, Co Down, BT34 5QR

Reformed Presbyterian Church

This mid-19th-century Neo-Classical church stands in a churchyard on the north side of Hawthorn's Lane in Rathfriland, positioned between Castle Street and Dromore Street. The building has undergone extensive renovation work, including replacement of all windows, which has compromised its exterior character. Modern internal alterations, including a dividing wall behind the pulpit, modern panelling, and a tiled ceiling, have similarly affected the interior.

The church is a symmetrical three-bay composition with a pitched natural slate roof aligned north-south, featuring a concrete skew at the north end and a modern cement rendered chimney rising from the south end of the east pitch, topped with a modern flue. Half-round metal rainwater goods run the roof perimeter.

The front wall is lined with cement rendering and paint, articulated with stepped stucco quoins and a low chamfered base course. A pedimented gable, framed by a moulded cornice, dominates the elevation. The central bay is inset with a semi-circular head rising into the pediment, its jambs featuring stepped painted stucco quoins and a semi-circular head with an advanced keyblock. At the centre sits a round-headed entrance doorway with granite jambs and an advanced keystone. The entrance comprises a pair of modern glazed timber doors with a timber sheeted tympanum, flanked on either side by wrought iron boot scrapers set into the granite paved threshold. Above the entrance is a modern plastic panel with run moulded architrave bearing the inscription "Meeting House of the / Reformed Presbyterian Church / Rathfriland / Erected 1777 Rebuilt 1861". Within the semi-circular head of the central bay is a large oculus with painted dressed granite surround and keystones at its cardinal points, containing a modern spoked stained timber fixed window. The left and right bays each contain a tall round-headed window with painted dressed granite surrounds, advanced keystones, and granite cills supported on two foliated brackets; each window is modern stained timber, four-paned with a radial head.

The west elevation is wet-dashed and unpainted, with four windows across its width, the extreme left one infilled. Its extreme south end, which is inset slightly, has stepped painted quoins with painted and rendered finish. All windows on this elevation are semi-circular headed with granite cills, containing modern margin-paned stained timber window frames with four panes and radial heads. The north gable is rendered and contains two original semi-circular headed windows with granite cills, each a 3/2 vertically divided sliding sash with margin panes and horns. The ground falls away here, and the gable has an advanced rubble stone base. The east gable mirrors the west elevation except that the infilled window at the north end contains a modern sheeted timber door with concrete steps leading up.

The church is set within a small graveyard to the rear and a gardened area to the front. A cement-rendered rubble stone wall with 20th-century wrought iron gates to its centre, set on single granite pillars, encloses the property to the street.

Historical evidence indicates that an original church was erected on this site, with a datestone indicating 1777, though the Ordnance Survey Memoir of 1834 records its erection as 1785 for a congregation of about 400 people; the earlier date may mark when work commenced, the later when it was completed. The large-scale Valuation town map of 1835 shows a narrower, longer building than the present structure, positioned at right angles to and fronting the street, captioned as "Independent Meeting Ho", while an 1860 map refers to it as "Covenanters Meeting Ho." The original building was demolished and replaced by the present church in 1861 at a cost of £700. The church is locally known as "The Rock", as it was constructed on an exposed rock at the hill crest. A survey slide dated 15 January 1970 records that the original front windows were 2/2 sliding sashes with semi-circular heads and the oculus contained a rose window with petal-like radial glazing.