St Mary’s New Church, Gortnahey Road, Gortnahey, Dungiven, Co Londonderry

St Mary’s New Church, built between 1980 and 1999, replaced an earlier church located half a mile to the southeast. Designed by Corr, FM & Associates, the church serves as a Roman Catholic place of worship and accommodates 400 people. The building presents a contemporary design, constructed as a square, colour-rendered structure with a pyramidal roof. The roof apex is offset and features a glazed lantern. A projecting apse and the main entrance are situated at a corner, creating an asymmetrical facade.

The entrance facade, located in the west corner, is recessed and sheltered by a covered porch supported by two pairs of circular steel columns. A collection of windows of varying sizes are dispersed across the facade at both high and low levels. The roof edge is finished with a metal box gutter and a significant overhang. The roof is slate-covered, with an asbestos finish, and includes a glazed lantern at the offset apex. The entrance doors are set back within a re-entrant square, whose ceiling is formed by the main roof overhang. Two tall, four-pane narrow windows illuminate the triangular inner porch.

The northwest facade features five high-level, four-pane square windows set under the eaves. The northeast facade recesses to reveal a diminutive apse, which is flanked by single windows and has a rear wall splayed to form an obtuse angle. Two square windows light the shrine and font areas; one incorporates a quatrefoil from the older church. The apse is separately roofed at a lower level than the main roof, which overhangs it. The southeast facade mirrors the northwest, but instead of the main entrance, it contains a secondary entrance. A boiler room is located at a lower level beneath the east corner of the church, accessible from the northeast side.

Due to the offset apex, the northeast roof slope is steeper than the others, while the northwest and southeast slopes are steeper than the southwest. Guttering and downpipes are aluminium, stove-enamelled. The walls are rendered in coloured plaster with a smooth plinth in a lighter tone. The church is set well back from Gortnahey Road, adjacent to a small housing estate. A large area of bitmac provides car parking to the front and side, and a new graveyard has been established around the building. The grounds are grassed and planted with trees and shrubs, which, when mature, will soften the landscape. The building was erected in 1990 and opened by Bishop E Daly; Dillon of Dungiven was the builder. A foundation plaque marks the building.