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

Church of Ireland Church, Dungiven

A cruciform stone-faced, gabled and slate-roofed church with a two-stage tower at the nave end, set back from Main Street adjacent to the fair green and the former school. The building is constructed of coursed rough ashlar sandstone in a biscuit colour, with pinkish red sandstone used on the tall panels of the belfry.

The tower features a pointed entrance doorway on its side with hood moulding terminating in horizontal stops and a relieving arch above. Just below the moulded stringcourse separating the two stages is a square framed panel with a blank quatrefoil, a motif repeated on the other sides of the tower. The south-west side facing the road has a tall pointed window divided into two lights by a wood Y-mullion with label moulding. A low plinth formed by a chamfered stringcourse runs around the entire church base.

Well-formed chamfered sandstone ashlar quoins decorate the leading corners of the first stage but do not carry up to the second stage. The four quoins of the second stage or belfry are formed by flat clasping continuous bands or plain pilasters returned across the top, defining a solid parapet. Each face of the belfry has a tall louvred lancet with a Y-mullion. In the middle of the parapet walls is a square lozenge pierced with an open cinquefoil. Each corner of the tower is topped with a plain conical pinnacle on a squat base. On the south-east side of the belfry, above the window, is a slate plaque inscribed: "Anno Christi 1816 / Hoc Templum Beneficientia Populi et / Patrocinia Parochia Huius Cura Studusque / Michaëlis 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 wood Y-mullion and hood moulding. The sandstone quoins of the tower are repeated on the external corners of the nave. The exposed gables on either side of the tower have a plain slightly overhanging square bargestone which returns across the top of the uppermost quoin. The side walls and gables of the transepts are similarly treated, with pointed windows on the south-west side, none on the north-east, and a three-light pointed and traceried window on the north-west gable, while the south-east has a two-light pointed and traceried window. The chancel arm has a wide three-light pointed window without label moulding and middle pointed tracery, while the south-west side wall has a two-light pointed window with quasi-perpendicular tracery tucked between the vesting room and the south-west transept.

A 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. Stonework from Altmover quarry is used on all walls, though it is coarser on the chancel and random rubble on the vestry. The top of all walls has a continuous stone corbel course supporting gutters and downpipes in cast aluminium. Roofs are neatly slated in Bangor Blues.

The church and its graveyard front onto the Glenshane Road and the fair green at the top of Main Street. To the south-west is the former school, supported by the church and Ogilby family and connected with the Kildare Place Society. Part of the fair green is now an enclosed carpark for the congregation. The graveyard is on two sides with a stone boundary wall and a small stone-built groundsman's shed at the north-west corner. A narrow railed plot stretches from the side wall of the south-west transept to the front wall at Glenshane Road, containing a large dominant spiky gothic memorial of the Ogilby family in stone. In front of it, nearer the road, is a hexagonal white marble gable memorial commemorating Robert Ogilby, R L Ogilby, James Ogilby, Leslie Ogilby and Alexander Ogilby, who died 1846 aged 95 years. The church forms a good vista, though somewhat bleak for the absence of trees.