Bovevagh Presbyterian Church, Ballyquin Road, Camnish, Dungiven, Co Londonderry

Bovevagh Presbyterian Church is a fine 19th-century neo-Gothic Presbyterian church in Early English style, pleasingly sited on the banks of the River Roe near Camnish, Dungiven. Though built or substantially rebuilt in the late 18th and 19th centuries, it retains an 18th-century vernacular plan layout. The church is well maintained with a substantial graveyard, though its setting has been somewhat spoiled by an adjacent modernised church hall.

The building follows a "T"-shaped plan of practically equal-length nave and transepts. It features a lean-to porch at the end of the nave, gabled and naturally slated with a double bellcote over the nave gable. The main walls are rendered. On the west side stands a 20th-century two-storey hall extension, gabled and slated with a further flat-roof extension at the south end.

The lean-to porch is constructed of random rubble sandstone with a battered plinth returning on each gablet. Each gablet contains a simple pointed entrance door in pairs, sheeted in wood with ashlar sandstone reveals and chamfer. The gables are finished with unadorned barge stones without kneelers. The long wall of the porch features a single pointed lancet with cusping, centrally placed and breaking the eaves to form a gabled dormer with stone barges and a slated roof ridge finishing level with the top of the lean-to roof. The roof is naturally slated with red decorative ridge tiles, some broken. Valleys are finished in lead, with gutters fixed directly under the slate overhang and downpipes on either side of the dormer.

The lean-to porch is shorter than the width of the nave gable. Above it and centred on the gable stands a wheel window with four quatrefoils and a semi-circular hood moulding. The gable has simple barge stones with a small moulded kneeler on each side that does not project above the line of the barge. The roof pitch is approximately 50 degrees. Above the wheel window is a double bellcote in ashlar sandstone, gabled in Early English style with unadorned barge stones and shouldered detail. A small chamfered quatrefoil opening sits at the apex. Below the apex of the main gable is a thin slender louvred vent to the roofspace. The bellcote is probably contemporary with the porch.

The nave and transepts each measure two bays long, with two cusped lancets in each having leaded lights. The transept gables feature three similar closely-spaced cusped lancets, and above towards the gable apex are small quatrefoils with semi-circular architrave forming vents to the roofspace. The west wall of the transepts, behind the pulpit, has six cusped lancets. A small chimney stack with a single pot sits on the south gable. There does not appear to be a basement to the church, though there is a considerable crossfall. The church has a steeply pitched Bangor blue slated roof with decorative ridge tiles grouped in series along the ridge.

The 20th-century hall extension is seven bays long and two storeys, separated from the church by a narrow gap with a passageway connection just north of the pulpit area. The first floor of the extension is on the same level as the church floor.

The church is sited close to the east bank of the River Roe near the junction of the Ballyquin and Camnish roads. The ground falls from the road to the river. A well-filled graveyard occupies the site to the east and south, while a carpark has been formed to the north. Between the buildings and the riverbank there are no graves. The boundary to Ballyquin Road features a random rubble wall with entrance gates and piers. A scattering of yew trees occupies the graveyard, with several mature trees on the south and west sides.

A Presbyterian congregation was established here in 1701 when Hans Stewart was ordained as minister, though earlier references suggest a church existed in the second half of the 17th century. The original church is thought to have been thatched and riggened, with records confirming it remained thatched in 1765. Following the ordination of Reverend Gray, who married a daughter of Dr Edward Edwards of Straw House, Bovevagh, a new church was built slightly removed from the former position. It was described as "T"-shaped, being 27 feet by 22 feet in the nave and 81 feet by 27 feet across the transepts. The church initially lacked a ceiling, unpaved passageways, and architectural pretension, being whitewashed. John McCluskey's Statistical Reports of 1821 described it as a "large house and in very good repair", though the Ordnance Survey Memoir of 1834-35 noted it was "inside not well finished" and estimated it had been built about 70 years prior.

In 1877 a meeting was held to decide whether the old meeting house should be repaired or rebuilt. Renovation was decided upon. In 1879 the floor was raised four feet and the walls and roof were rebuilt—work so extensive it amounted to practically a complete rebuild. During these renovations, the congregation worshipped in nearby Scriggan Presbyterian Church, now demolished. The church was reopened on 21 March 1880 by Reverend D Hanna of Belfast. Further improvements were carried out in 1914 and 1922, and again in 1928 when the church was closed for renovations. The two-storey hall and minister's room were completed in 1928, and the bellcote and lean-to porch were probably added at this time. Samuel Smythe-Edwards' son Frederick presented the communion table. In 1962 a new electrical and heating system was installed. More recently the church has been redecorated and present stained glass installed.