2nd Presbyterian Church, Newry Street, Rathfriland, Newry, Co Down, BT34 5PY

The 2nd Presbyterian Church in Rathfriland is a late 18th-century meeting house erected in 1779 by public subscription at a cost of £75. The building began construction on 1 July 1779, with masonry work undertaken by Michael Kennedy for £11-6-11, carpentry by Hough Gowdy for £10-15-4½, and slating by James Parker. It originated as a Seceders' Meeting House and is situated on the south side of Loughbrickland Road, set within a churchyard with a small hall to the front and graveyard to the rear.

The church is a long barn-type structure aligned west to east with a vestibule abutting the west gable end. Externally, the building is plain and has been compromised by inappropriate render and modern windows to the rear elevation. The main block features textured cement rendered walls with a smooth rendered basecourse, topped with a pitched natural slate roof. A rendered and coped chimney projects from the left (east) gable. Semicircular cast iron rainwater goods run along the front, with similar plastic ones to the rear.

The front (north) elevation contains eight openings: one door and seven windows. The windows are 6/6 sliding sashes with Y-tracery Gothic heads, exposed boxes, and painted granite cills. A sheeted painted timber door with a similar Y-tracery transom (though with a lower apex than the window heads) sits to the right of the leftmost window. Projecting electric lights are mounted over the door and on the right-hand quoin.

The east gable has two small 6/6 windows with Y-tracery set within the apex. The rear (south) elevation features an advanced basecourse and six window openings: five follow the same pattern as those on the main façade, but are now fitted with modern fixed stained timber top-hung casements (3/9). The four leftmost windows are equally spaced, with a small modern 1/2 top-hung window with concrete cill positioned to the left of the rightmost opening. The west gable, abutted by the vestibule, is blank.

The vestibule block is narrower than the main church body and has a lower pitched natural slate roof with cement skew to the west gable. Its front elevation features a pair of three-panelled doors with Y-tracery Gothic transoms, flanked on either side by tall narrow four-paned (2 x 2) lancet windows with Y-tracery heads and painted concrete cills. Semicircular plastic rainwater goods run on plain eavesboards. The rear elevation contains a single window matching those to the main block's rear wall. The west gable is blank.

The interior is plain with no features of special interest.

A porch was added by 1860, as shown on the Ordnance Survey town plan of that year. A valuation revision book notes "addition in progress" in 1866, recorded on the accompanying valuation map as an extension to the east end of the building.

The adjoining church hall at the front right-hand corner has a pitched natural slate roof, wet-dashed unpainted walls, and 2/2 segmental-headed sash windows. The front yard is enclosed by modern post-World War II wrought iron railings and gates. The rear graveyard contains mainly late 19th-century memorials, with some dating from the 1830s-40s.