C of I Church, Main Street, Dungiven, Co Londonderry, BT47 4PQ

Church of Ireland Parish Church, Main Street, Dungiven, County Londonderry. Built in 1816 in a neo-Gothic style to a Greek cross plan, constructed from coursed, roughly squared sandstone from the Altmover quarry in a biscuit colour, with contrasting pinkish-red sandstone used on the belfry panels. The church is well maintained and occupies a prominent position at the upper end of Main Street, adjacent to the fair green and the former school, fronting onto the Glenshane Road. Its setting includes a boundary wall, gates, railings, the Ogilby monument, a groundsman's store, and a graveyard.

EXTERIOR

The building is cruciform in plan, stone-faced, gabled, and slated in Bangor Blues. A two-stage tower rises at the nave end. A low plinth formed by a chamfered stringcourse runs at the base of the tower and continues around the entire church. The entrance doorway is set in the side of the tower: a pointed arch with hood moulding terminating in horizontal stops and a relieving arch above. Immediately below the moulded stringcourse that divides the two tower stages is a square-framed panel containing a blank quatrefoil; this motif is repeated on the other faces of the tower. The south-west face of the tower, which faces the road, has a tall pointed window divided into two lights by a timber Y-mullion with label moulding over. The south-east face has no window. Well-formed chamfered sandstone ashlar quoins decorate the leading corners of the lower stage but do not continue into the upper stage. The four corners of the upper stage are defined instead by flat clasping continuous bands, or plain pilasters, which are returned across the top to form a solid parapet. Each face of the belfry stage carries a tall louvred lancet with a Y-mullion. In the centre of each parapet wall is a square lozenge pierced with an open cinquefoil. Each corner of the tower is crowned by a plain conical pinnacle on a squat base.

A slate plaque on the south-east face of the belfry, above the belfry window, is inscribed: Anno Christi 1816 / Hoc Templum Beneficiutia Populi et / Patronia Parochia hugus cura Studusque / Michaelis Ross / In honorem Dei et Domini Nostri / Aedificatum / Roberto Ogilby Patronio / Alexander Ross Vicario.

The nave side walls each have a single pointed window with a timber Y-mullion and hood moulding. The sandstone quoins on the tower corners are repeated on all external angles of the building. The part-exposed gable on either side of the tower has a plain, slightly overhanging square bargestone that returns across the top of the uppermost quoin. The transept walls and gables are treated similarly. The south-west transept has a pointed window, the north-east transept has none, the north-west gable has a three-light pointed and traceried window, and the south-east gable has a two-light pointed and traceried window. The chancel arm has a wide three-light pointed window without label moulding, with middle-pointed tracery. On the south-west side wall of the chancel, tucked between the vestry and the south-west transept, is a two-light pointed window with quasi-Perpendicular tracery.

The small gabled vestry abuts the south-west wall of the chancel, in line with its gable wall. It has a square-headed four-pane sliding sash window on the north-east side and a door on the opposite wall. The stonework on the chancel and vestry is coarser than elsewhere — random rubble rather than coursed rough ashlar. The tops of all walls carry a continuous stone corbel course supporting the gutters, which, along with the downpipes, appear to be cast aluminium.

SETTING

The church and its graveyard front onto the Glenshane Road and the fair green. Part of the fair green is now an enclosed car park for the congregation. The composition forms a good vista, though somewhat bleak in the absence of trees. The graveyard occupies two sides of the church, enclosed by a stone boundary wall, with a small stone-built groundsman's shed at the north-west corner. At the front of the church, a narrow railed plot runs from the side wall of the south-west transept to the front wall on Glenshane Road. Within it stands a large, dominant, spiky Gothic memorial in stone to the Ogilby family. Nearer the road, in front of this, is a hexagonal white marble gable memorial commemorating Robert Ogilby, R. L. Ogilby, James Ogilby, Leslie Ogilby, and Alexander Ogilby, who died in 1846 aged 95 years. To the south-west of the church is the former school, now known as Ogilby Hall, which was supported by the church and the Ogilby family and was connected with the Kildare Place Society.

INTERIOR

The interior is enhanced by exposed stonework, brick and stonework being repointed with a raised joint. The church has good fittings including a fine stained glass collection, a good brass lectern, a carved wood pulpit installed in 1946 by Robert Cromie of Tamniarin, and a carved stone font presented by the Ogilby family in 1898. Timber panelling lines the chancel, and tiling has been laid in the passageways. White marble steps lead to the chancel, installed in 1963 in memory of the Reverend James Kelly. The chancel retains its original roof trusses. A pipe organ of 1878, installed by the Ogilby family, is retained.

HISTORY AND ALTERATIONS

The present building replaced a church built in 1718, which had itself replaced the Plantation-era edifice at the priory. The roof timbers of the priory church were incorporated into the 1718 building. Edward Cary, who had married the daughter of Lady Doddington, presented a bronze bell in 1712. The 1718 church was reported to be in good repair in 1768 but was replaced in 1816 on the same site at a cost of £1,200, borrowed from the Board of First Fruits and repaid in seventeen yearly instalments. During the rebuild, the parishioners used Banagher Church. In 1858, James Ogilby contributed £200 to replace high-backed pews with pitch pine seating. In 1891 the chancel was widened, giving the church its Greek cross plan form. The building was originally heated by stoves in the transept gables; these were replaced in 1936 by a low-pressure hot water radiator system, which was in turn replaced in 1967 by the present electrical heating installation.

Because the Altmover sandstone proved porous, the church required regular replastering and distempering. In 1939, the gable wall of the south-west transept was stripped of plaster and the stonework pointed, which proved successful in allowing the masonry to breathe; the whole church was treated in the same way in 1944. In 1962–63, woodworm and dry rot were discovered in the roof timbers. The church was closed and entirely re-roofed, with the adjacent Ogilby Hall serving as the church during the works.

An earlier survey record noted the church as "altered 1890" and described it as a cruciform church of almost equal nave, transepts, and chancel, with a new plaster ceiling added at some point, and the chancel retaining its original trusses. The same record mentioned monuments to Robert Ogilby of Pellipar and William Rainey of Jesus College, Cambridge, and gave the construction date as 1810, with alterations around 1840. The building was listed in 1974.