St Guaires Church, Aghadowey, Coleraine, Co. Londonderry, BT51

St Guaires Church is a freestanding Gothic hall-and-tower parish church built in 1797 in basalt, located on the north side of Ardreagh Road in Aghadowey, south of Coleraine, County Londonderry. The church was extended around 1870, possibly to designs by Joseph Welland, with the addition of a chancel and robing room to the east.

The building is rectangular in plan with a square entrance tower to the west rising in three stages. The roof is pitched natural slate with blue and black angled ridge tiles, raised stone verges with kneelers and a finial to the gable. Cast-iron half-round rainwater goods are mounted on brackets.

The walling is coursed and squared basalt stone with lime pointing and sandstone dressings. The tower is constructed of random rubble coursed basalt with a sandstone string course between stages. Original windows are cusped metal lattice lancets with margin panes in ashlar stone surrounds with chamfered sills. A geometrical decorated tracery window with hood mould, carved head stops and voussoirs is positioned to the east; a simple geometric leaded lattice tracery window faces west on the tower.

The entrance tower is instepped with corner piers rising to a castellated stone parapet with broached corner pinnacles. It has pointed-headed Y-tracery louvered openings to four sides at belfry level and an oculus with louvered circular openings to four sides at the second stage. The ground floor has, to the north, a slated lean-to with chimneystack and timber-sheeted doors; a bipartite tracery window faces west and the entrance faces east. The entrance comprises pointed-headed timber-sheeted doors with cast-iron strap-hinges in a sandstone ashlar surround with moulded archivolt and hood mould having carved head stops, stone voussoirs and relieving arches over.

The north elevation is lit by three cusped lancets. The east gable is abutted by the chancel with a triple tracery window to the gable. The chancel is flanked by a vestry to the right, which has a hipped slated roof, cusped leaded lattice windows to north and east faces, and an opening to the west with a timber-sheeted door having ornate cast-iron strap-hinges in a shouldered sandstone surround, accessed via two stone steps. To the left is the robing room with a slated lean-to roof, a cusped leaded lattice window to the east face, and an opening to the south with a timber-sheeted door in a shouldered sandstone surround. The south elevation mirrors the north elevation in detail.

The church sits in an unspoiled rural setting on a rectangular plot with cemetery to three sides. To the north, a grassy verge and low rubblestone boundary wall with cement coping separates the site from the river. A basalt stone boundary wall runs from west to east along the south with dressed coping stones. Two square ashlar gate piers with pointed caps to the west support modern cast-iron gates. Two red-brick square piers to the southeast with pointed stone caps support an original cast-iron latch gate.

A small coursed rubblestone hall to the west has three oculi in red-brick surrounds on its east elevation; the south gable is roughcast rendered with a central oculus. A large late twentieth-century pebbledash church hall with tarmacadamed parking area stands to the west. The cemetery contains a wide variety of headstones dating from the late eighteenth century to the present day, including some Victorian tombs with decorative cast-iron railings.