Church of St. Peter and St. Paul., Foreglen Road, Dungiven, Co Londonderry, BT47 4PL

Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Foreglen Road, Dungiven

A small hall church built in 1925 in the Lombard Romanesque style, designed as part of the Celtic revival movement of the 1920s. The building replaced an earlier church that stood in the nearby old graveyard. The foundation stone was laid on 13 July 1924 by Bishop Charles McHugh, and the church was dedicated on 9 September 1925 by Bishop-elect Dr. Bernard O'Kane. The architect was W.J. O'Doherty MRIAI, the builder was James Deeny of Ballyrory, and the parish priest was Rev. Anthony O'Neill. The Derry Journal described it at dedication as "a spectacle of celestial beauty and chasteness", noting its Celtic Romanesque style.

The building is a simple hall church eight bays long with an additional half bay at each end, a projecting west porch, polygonal sanctuary, pitched roofs with gables, and a sacristy return. The entire façade is finished in smooth rendered and painted surfaces, though this painting was not original.

The west gable features flanking pilasters with corbelled arcading that follows the barge lines, distinguished by crisp bargestone overhang, and is surmounted by a thin metal cross. Centrally placed in the gable is a large oculus subdivided as a quatrefoil with moulded reveals, horizontal cill, and semicircular moulded hood. A low gabled pitched roof projects from the west front to form a small entrance porch with doors on the north side. The porch gable is framed by pilasters and overhanging bargestone in a plain manner, with its apex surmounted by a cross. Simulated kneelers terminate the barges on each gable.

The north façade expresses the eight bays through wide shallow pilasters dividing the wall into panels, with two narrower panels at each end. The top of each panel features semi-circular corbelled arcading just beneath the meagre fascia, which functions as the metal gutter. Each full panel contains a tall, slender round-headed lancet window. A plinth is defined by slight projection, with pilasters likewise projected at the base, the whole finished in smooth rendering and painted.

The east end has a projecting polygonal sanctuary or chancel with hipped roofs meeting at an apex on the nave gable. Three sides of the chancel each have a round-headed lancet, not quite as tall as those of the nave. The east nave gable is plain without pilaster framing or barge arcading; another thin metal cross protrudes from the gable apex.

The south façade repeats the north design except that a sacristy return projects from the end two panels. As the ground falls away, space occurs beneath it for a boiler room. Access to the sacristy is by a flight of steps to a door in the east side. Square-headed windows provide daylight to this return. The slated roofs are plain; that on the sacristy is hipped with a chimney stack on the ridge. Metal ogee gutters form the only overhangs, with a minimum of metal downpipes.

The building is sited close and parallel to the old line of Foreglen Road. A graveyard is laid out on the south sloping side. A boundary wall, piers, and gates are positioned on the north side at the back of the footpath.

The church was renovated in 1991, during which time the wooden sanctuary fittings were partially removed, the profile of the sanctuary steps was altered, and statues of Peter and Paul were omitted. The church was delisted on 26 March 2004, having been considered too recent in date to meet the criteria for special architectural and historic interest.