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

St Mary's Roman Catholic Church is a free-standing, double-height rendered church built around 1840 on the site of an earlier chapel, with a square blackstone entrance tower added in 1899. It sits on the west side of Boleran Road, northwest of Garvagh, directly facing the junction with Mayboy Road. The church was refurbished at the beginning of the 20th century, and much of its decorative detailing dates from that period.

The building has a rectangular plan with a three-stage square tower to the south and a single-storey gabled annexe to the north, added around 1910. The roof is pitched natural slate with angled ridge tiles, raised painted masonry verges with kneelers, and metal cross finials to the gables. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods sit on projecting stone eaves. The main walling is painted roughcast render on a painted smooth rendered plinth with raised quoins. The tower is built of uncoursed squared rock-faced blackstone with sandstone dressings and a moulded sandstone string course between stages.

Windows throughout the main body of the church are either Y-tracery timber lattice lancets or early 20th-century leaded-and-stained glass lancets, all set in smooth rendered surrounds with hood moulds and painted or concrete sills. The tower windows are pointed-headed leaded lattice lights with coloured glass, in sandstone blocked surrounds with chamfered sills and hood moulds, surmounted by blackstone voussoirs. The annexe has pointed-headed double-hung multi-paned timber casements.

The south-facing gabled front is abutted at its centre by the blackstone tower. To the right of the tower is a Y-tracery window; to the left is part of a Y-tracery window above a modern doorcase insertion containing a modern glazed timber door with a lead-lined canopy and paved step. The tower itself has a castellated parapet with circular corner pinnacles. Its belfry stage has paired pointed-headed louvred openings to all four sides, set in blocked sandstone surrounds with moulded archivolts and hood moulds. The second stage has paired leaded lattice windows to the east and west faces, and a single leaded lattice window to the south face. The first stage has a leaded lattice window to the south face and, to the east, a replacement double-leaf timber-sheeted door surmounted by a leaded-and-stained glass pointed-headed transom light, all set within a sandstone ashlar recess with a blocked surround, hood mould with carved stops, and blackstone voussoirs; the door is accessed via two terrazzo steps.

The west elevation has five evenly spaced lancets. The north gable has large early 20th-century leaded-and-stained glass windows to the left and right, with the single-storey gabled annexe abutting at the centre, detailed to match the main church. The annexe's north gable has a window and a modern timber-sheeted door with a pointed-headed transom light. Its west elevation has five square timber casement windows; its 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 stained glass is of high quality. Six windows by Mayer and Company of Munich trace the foundations of Christian faith from the Annunciation to the Ascension, and are described as brilliantly coloured. Two later lights by Clokey and Company of Belfast depict the Holy Family.

The interior retains marble altars placed around 1888, with marble rails added in the 1950s. The church largely escaped internal alteration following the liturgical changes of the 1960s, but underwent renovation around 2004, carried out by FM Corr and Associates of Londonderry. At that time, the front elevation was altered to provide a side door, the sacristy was extended, the position of the gallery stairs was changed, and the pews, gallery, and roof structure appear to have been replaced.

The church stands on a rectangular plot set back from Boleran Road, with a large graveyard to the front containing headstones dating from the mid-19th century, some plots enclosed by Victorian cast-iron railings. To the southeast is a large tarmacadamed car park, and to the north is a large tarmacadamed lay-by; these modern hardstandings have compromised the otherwise unspoiled rural setting. 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 runs to the front. To the south are a modern graveyard, a tarmacadamed pathway with metal handrails leading to the car park at the southeast, a boundary of roughcast rendered wall with concrete coping, and a modern shrine.

The church carries considerable historical depth. The parish of Errigal, which comprises the areas of Ballerin and Glenullin, has an ancient ecclesiastical history: tradition holds that St Adamnan, also known as Eunan, founded a monastery at Ballintemple around 600 AD, which was destroyed by the Vikings in the 9th century, rebuilt, and survived until the late 16th century. A further 9th-century monastic settlement existed at Aghadowey. At the Plantation, the parish of Errigal was granted to the Ironmongers' Company, and during the subsequent penal law period local Catholics worshipped at mass rocks, one of which can still be seen in a field opposite the church, marked with a cross and the letters IHS.

The present site was acquired in 1775 from the Canning family, descendants of George Canning, the first agent of the Ironmongers in Londonderry. An earlier Boleran Chapel was built on the site in 1775 and is shown on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1832, orientated west to east and slightly to the right of the present church. That early structure was a simple low thatched building with an earthen floor and no fixed pews, though forms were provided which could accommodate around 400 worshippers. It was built during the penal law period and deliberately constructed to resemble a weaving mill in order to avoid detection.

The foundation stone of the present church was laid on Easter Sunday 1840, and the first Mass was celebrated there on Christmas Day of the same year. The church first appears on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1849 to 1853, captioned as RC Chapel, with a graveyard also noted. The church was built on land owned by the Marquess of Waterford and is listed in Griffith's Valuation of 1856 to 1864 at £10, with ten shillings for the graveyard. The square tower of basalt and sandstone was added in 1899, the gift of Bernard O'Kane of Mobuoy, a merchant banker who owned property in the area. By the time of the First General Revaluation in the 1930s, the church was recorded as able to accommodate 420 people.