St Aidan’s R C Church, Duncrun Road, Magilligan, Limavady, Co Londonderry

St Aidan's Roman Catholic Church is a simple hall church built in 1826–27 on Duncrun Road at Magilligan, near Limavady. It represents a late pre-emancipation vernacular Catholic church that has retained its essential proportions, though recent internal and external alterations have diminished its architectural quality.

The building measures 20½ metres by 9 metres internally. It is laid out on a north–south axis with a natural slated roof and a central gable porch in the north gable. The exterior is rendered with white and black dry dash chippings. The church comprises five bays with five pointed Y-traceried windows on the east wall and two on the west wall; six of these windows have been renewed. Originally, the exterior walls were basalt. On the east wall is a projection that once contained the high altar prior to 1931. The west wall has two buttresses, which were built to strengthen the walls where the gallery beams rested; one gallery was removed in 1931. A sacristy block stands at the south-west corner, which was extended in 1989.

When originally constructed, the altar was placed in a recess in the south wall (now the sacristy), with pews arranged accordingly. There were two deep galleries facing each other, accessed by external steps, and the interior remained unfinished for several years. In 1931 a major renovation took place. The sanctuary was relocated to the south end of the building, the gallery there was removed, and a new entrance porch was formed in the north gable, replacing two previous entrances on the west wall. The architect was probably J P McGrath (died 1948). In 1989 the church underwent major renovation both internally and externally, with the boundary wall rebuilt; the architects were H M D of Derry. A small grotto contains the original date stone, and a niche in the wall by the car park holds a statue of the Virgin beneath a plaque dated 1826.

The church stands concealed by a small hill crowned by the ruins of the medieval church of St Aidan, enjoying tranquil seclusion in a historically significant location. The old graveyard contains graves of both Protestant and Catholic parishioners; later Catholic parish graves now encroach southward over the ridge beyond the medieval ruins. The building is maintained in good condition. Just outside the graveyard to the north-east is a well called Tobar Easpuig Aidin (the well of Bishop Aidan). At the south-east corner of the graveyard a steep wooded path leads up the hillside to a mass rock, used by Catholic parishioners before 1776, when the Earl of Bristol granted them use of the old church.