St. Paul's Parish Church, St. Paul's Road, Articlave, Castlerock, Co. Londonderry, BT51 4UN

St. Paul's Parish Church is a Grade B1 Church of Ireland building located on the north side of St. Paul's Road in the village of Articlave, Castlerock, County Londonderry. Built around 1690, it is a free-standing double-height rubblestone hall and tower type church set within a burial ground enclosed by rubblestone walls.

The church is rectangular on plan, oriented on an east-west axis, with a square-plan bell-tower positioned at the west gable. It is set back from St. Paul's Road and surrounded by a lawned burial ground containing grave-markers, tombs and monuments dating from the seventeenth century to the present day. The site is enclosed to the road by rubblestone walls with stacked coping and a pair of rubblestone piers with wrought-iron gates, with a bitmac path leading to the church entrance. A further pair of sandstone ashlar piers at the northwest corner provides access to the car park via bitmac footpath. One of the entrance piers bears a stone plaque inscribed 'DUNBOE PARISH CHURCH 1691'.

The church has a pitched natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles set behind slightly raised gables. The west gable features cement over tooled stone coping, while the east gable has cement coping with lead flashing and moulded cement kneeler stones, surmounted by a cement rendered block. Cast-iron guttering on iron drive-through brackets sits at the tooled stone eaves course.

The walling consists of random rubblestone with cement pointing throughout, except where otherwise stated. Window openings are pointed-arched with voussoired stone heads and tooled sandstone sills.

The two-stage square-plan bell-tower has full-height shallow clasping corner buttresses surmounted by four tooled sandstone ashlar pinnacles and a crenelated parapet wall. A cut stone platband separates the lower and upper stages, with a further projecting cut stone string course at the base of the parapet and blind loops to the buttresses. The bell-stage contains pointed-headed openings on the north, west and south elevations with timber Y-tracery frames and timber louvers. The lower stage of the west elevation features a pointed-headed window opening with smooth rendered surround and an original pointed-headed bipartite latticed wrought-iron window with a floral light to the head and storm glazing.

The south nave elevation is three windows wide and contains a pointed-headed door opening at the west end, formed in voussoired stone with a replacement hardwood door and hardwood overpanel. Above this is an oculus formed in stone with replacement leaded light. Adjacent to the door opening is a wall-mounted slate sundial with Roman numerals inscribed with the text 'TIS GREATLY WISE TO TALK WITH OUR PAST HOURS, AND ASK THEM WHAT REPORT THEY BORE TO HEAVEN A.D. 1832'. The window openings on the south elevation have replacement hardwood frames with leaded coloured glazing and storm glazing dating from the late twentieth century.

The north nave elevation is also three windows wide and features rough-cast rendered walling. The window openings have smooth rendered surrounds with original wrought-iron latticed windows as found in the tower, each with a pair of stained glass panels at the centre. At the west end is a diminutive square-headed window opening with a four-light timber casement window.

The east gable has rough-cast rendered walling with a central pointed-headed east window. This window has a smooth render surround and features a replacement tripartite Gothic tracery hardwood frame with leaded coloured glazing and storm glazing.

The church has been extensively renovated around 1835 and again around 1991. The building retains many original features, including the wrought-iron latticed windows with their characteristic bipartite design, though many windows have been replaced with hardwood frames and leaded or coloured glazing in the late twentieth century.