First Presbyterian Church, Newry Street, Rathfriland, Newry, Co Down, BT34 5PZ

First Presbyterian Church, Rathfriland

A mid-18th-century church stands on the north side of Newry Street, aligned parallel to the street with a church hall to its right. The building is rectangular in plan with a gallery.

The roof is hipped with natural slate and lead ridges. Slightly advanced eaves support half-round cast-iron rainwater goods. The walls are lined, rendered and painted, with boxed V-channelled quoins in alternating pairs set on a moulded base course.

The south-facing front elevation has four windows to each of its two floors, grouped towards the centre. All windows are semicircular-headed with modern stained timber frames containing modern 20th-century leaded and coloured glass. Windows have painted granite cills and painted moulded stucco architraves. Those on the upper floor align with those below but are diminished in height. Ground level falls to the left.

The right (east) gable is abutted by a lower two-storey entrance porch with a hipped natural slate roof at its east end and cast-iron rainwater goods. The porch's south cheek has blocked stucco quoins to the right on a moulded base. The main entrance, positioned at the left, comprises a pair of modern painted timber doors, each with four raised and fielded panels. Above the entrance is a slate plaque with painted moulded stucco architrave, inscribed: "Congregation erected AD 1662 / Meeting House built AD 1679 / Revd Alex Gordon Minister / Succeeded by / Revd Robert Gordon AD 1711 / Meeting house rebuilt AD 1775 / Revd Samuel Barber Minister / Ceiled and improved AD 1834 / Revd John White Minister". Centred on the wall to the right of this plaque is a semicircular window with modern stained timber frame and coloured glazing. The right (east) cheek of the porch has a large rectangular window opening to the centre, with painted cill and three vertical panels in modern chamfered stained timber frames. Each panel contains coloured and leaded glass, with the central panel depicting a burning bush. A modern flue pipe rises towards the right end of this elevation. The rear (north) elevation of the porch is similar to the front, except the doors at right are glazed and the semicircular window above centre is plainly glazed. A second modern four-panelled stained timber door stands at the left.

The rear (north) elevation of the main block is identical to the front elevation but without architraves. The windows retain original timber sash boxes, but modern leaded lights with security glazing have been inserted. Ground level falls to the right.

The left (west) gable of the main church contains two semicircular-headed windows with painted cills (no architraves) at high level. Both contain 19th-century stained glass windows.

The churchyard is small to the front and much larger to the rear. The front is enclosed by a smooth granite-coped plastered and painted wall carrying modern metal railings (alternating wavy and straight pattern) and gates.

Set to the right (east) is a 19th-century church hall, a single-storey structure with pitched natural slate roof and cement-rendered painted walls. It has been much modernised and extended during the 1990s to the street front. A plaque on the left (west) wall reads "Erected 1894 Extended 1997".