St Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Boleran, Coleraine, Co. Londonderry, BT51

St Mary's Roman Catholic Church is a free-standing rendered church built around 1840 on the site of an earlier church, located on the west side of Boleran Road northwest of Garvagh. A later square blackstone entrance tower, dated 1899, was added to the south elevation.

The building has a rectangular plan with a three-stage square tower to the south and a single-storey gabled annexe to the north, dating from around 1910. The pitched natural slate roof features angled ridge tiles and raised painted masonry verges with kneelers, topped with metal cross finials to the gables. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods sit on projecting stone eaves.

The main church walls are finished in painted roughcast render over a painted smooth rendered plinth with raised quoins. The tower is constructed of uncoursed squared rock-faced blackstone with sandstone dressings and a moulded sandstone string course between the stages. Windows are primarily Y-tracery timber lattice lancets or early twentieth-century leaded-and-stained glass lancets in smooth rendered surrounds with hood moulds and painted or concrete sills. Pointed-headed leaded lattice windows with coloured glass light the tower stages, set in sandstone blocked surrounds with chamfered sills and hood moulds, surmounted by blackstone voussoirs. The annexe features pointed-headed double-hung multi-paned timber casements.

The south-facing gabled front is abutted at its centre by the blackstone square tower. To the right of the tower is a Y-tracery window, and to the left is part of a Y-tracery window above a modern doorcase containing a modern glazed timber door with a lead lined canopy and paved step.

The square tower has a castellated parapet with circular corner pinnacles. The belfry stage contains paired pointed-headed louvered openings on all four sides in blocked sandstone surrounds with moulded archivolts and hood moulds. The second stage features paired leaded lattice windows to the east and west faces and a single leaded lattice window (lower) to the south face. The first stage has a leaded lattice window to the south face and opens to the east with a replacement double-leaf timber-sheeted door surmounted by a leaded-and-stained glass pointed-headed transom light, all set in a sandstone ashlar recess with blocked surround, hood mould with carved stops and blackstone voussoirs. The door is accessed via two terrazzo steps.

The west elevation comprises five evenly-spaced lancets. The north gable features large early twentieth-century leaded-and-stained glass windows at the left and right, with the single-storey modern gabled annexe abutted to the centre. The annexe has a window and modern timber-sheeted door with pointed-headed transom light to its north gable. The west elevation has five square timber casement windows, while the east elevation has four windows and a modern timber-sheeted entrance door with a pointed-headed leaded-and-stained glass transom light, accessed by two concrete steps.

The church occupies a rectangular plot set back from Boleran Road directly facing the junction of Mayboy Road. A large graveyard extends to the front, with a large tarmacadamed carpark to the southeast and a large tarmacadamed lay-by to the north. The church is slightly elevated, with a grassy bank to the rear enclosed by a roughcast rendered wall with concrete coping topped by modern steel railings. A tarmacadamed pathway leads to the front. To the south is a modern graveyard, a tarmacadamed pathway with metal handrails leading to the carpark at the southeast, and a roughcast rendered boundary wall with concrete coping. The front graveyard contains a variety of headstones dating from the mid-nineteenth century, with some plots featuring Victorian cast-iron railings. A modern shrine stands to the south.