Banagher Old Church, Carnanbane Road, Dungiven, Co Londonderry

Banagher Old Church is an early medieval stone-built church of considerable historical significance, located in a secluded setting in the townland of Magheramore near Dungiven. The building consists of a roofless nave and chancel orientated east to west, with a western entrance and evidence of modifications spanning the 13th and 15th centuries.

The west gable contains a narrow central doorway with inclined sides and a trabeated head carrying a large stone lintel. The doorway is surrounded by a plain moulded architrave with straight sides, positioned at a considerable distance from the door jamb and head, and is heavily eroded. The gable itself is built of random rubble sandstone in good weathering condition, though the triangular apex has been lost.

The north wall of the nave is unbroken by openings and matches the stonework and height of the west gable. The chancel's north wall steps back from the nave line and reduces in height to sill level halfway along, suggesting a former window location. Remarkably, the chancel stonework is of ashlar character, contrasting with the random rubble construction elsewhere. The east gable is substantially reduced in height with little evidence of an original window. Each corner features a three-quarter engaged shaft with moulded base and capital, now broken and heavily eroded, which may represent later reinstatement during restoration work.

The chancel's south wall contains one narrow round-headed window with battered jambs and triple roll architrave. The nave's south wall has a smaller but wider round-headed window with straight jambs and plain wide band architrave, its cill horned into the wall. The chancel south wall stonework matches the north wall's ashlar character, while the nave south wall is random rubble. Well-formed quoins mark the setbacks where the chancel narrows. A worn shallow step exists at the threshold of the west door.

The ruins are set on a small knoll atop a sandstone ridge and are enclosed by a gravel path with a random rubble retaining wall to the east, south and west, adjoining the graveyard.

The nave is believed to date to the 12th century, with the chancel added in the 13th century and further alterations made in the 15th century, though the engaged corner shafts are characteristic of 11th-century work elsewhere. Banagher Church may have replaced the earlier church of Templemoyle, located a mile or less to the northeast, or may have served as the church or chapel of a monastic settlement, possibly founded by St O'Heney as abbot. The building likely became parochial in the 13th century. Archbishop Colton visited in 1397 during his visitation to the Diocese of Derry. By 1622 the church was recorded in ruins, though parish clerks and church wardens are documented for 1661, 1686 and 1691. The parish subsequently transferred its worship to a new church built in Dungiven in 1710. Excavations within the church during the 1950s were followed by work to make the ruins presentable.