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

St Guaire's Church is a freestanding Gothic Revival hall-and-tower type parish church built in 1797, with extensions added around 1870, standing on the north side of Ardreagh Road in the village of Aghadowey, south of Coleraine. The building is constructed in basalt and represents a significant example of the Gothic Revival style in a picturesque rural setting.

The church sits on a site of considerable antiquity. St Guaire — the name thought to be a corruption of Jerome — is said to have founded a monastery here in the 7th century. A church was recorded on this site in 1622, at which point it was in ruins and due for repair; the surrounding land had at the Plantation largely passed to the Ironmongers' Company and the Mercers' Company. The church was rebuilt in 1797, at which time a handsome tower with an octagonal spire was erected at the expense of the Earl Bishop of Derry. In 1828 the spire was struck by lightning: two thirds of it was demolished, the bell was knocked down, tearing a hole in the north wall of the church and flinging twenty-pound stones onto a nearby bleach green; Andrew Orr's pew was torn six feet from the wall, other pews were shattered, and the lightning finally exited through the east window, smashing it to pieces. The surviving tower structure was subsequently embattled and crowned with pinnacles. In the 1830s the Ecclesiastical Commissioners granted £183 for repairs, at which time the church was re-pewed to accommodate an additional 100 people. The church and graveyard were valued at £6 18s in the Townland Valuation of 1828–40 and at £11 10s, with 10s for the graveyard, in Griffith's Valuation of 1856–64.

In 1870 the church was enlarged by the addition of a chancel, robing room, and gallery, and a new door and window were fitted in the tower. East and south windows by James Ballantine and Son of Edinburgh were installed at this time: the east window at the expense of the parish, the south window a memorial to the husband and son of Mrs Maddison of Agivey House. An organ by Frederick Holt of Edinburgh also formed part of the remodelling. Communion rails, a reading desk, and other oak fittings made by John C. Dunlop of St Stephen's Street, Edinburgh, were salvaged from the house of Mary of Guise (demolished in 1848), an ancient Blackfriars monastery, and Cardinal Beaton's house — all buildings demolished under Edinburgh's City Improvement Act. The church reopened on 31st March 1871. Signed but undated drawings for the chancel extension have survived bearing the name of Joseph Welland, architect to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners; however, Welland had died by 1860, and it appears the project was taken over by John Guy Ferguson, who was appointed architect to the Diocese of Derry and Raphoe in 1868. The tower contains two bells: the older is said to be a gift from Queen Anne to her chaplain, the local man Reverend Robert Gage, who was also Prebendary of Aghadowey parish in the early 18th century — the bell is dated 1695. A further bell was mounted in the tower in 1899. A war memorial obelisk in the churchyard is attributed in the Irish Builder to J. Robinson and cost £700 in 1921; it is unclear whether this refers to James Moore Caldwell Robinson, architect and partner in the firm of Robinson and Davidson, or to John McFarlane Robinson, architect with offices in Derry.

At the time of the First General Revaluation in the 1930s the church could accommodate 300 people, with the plan showing the nave, tower, and chancel with attached vestry. Outbuildings at that time comprised two stable blocks used for horses during services, joined by a coach house; these appear to have been added in the early 20th century and are first shown on the fourth edition Ordnance Survey map of 1924–33. The parish was amalgamated with Kilrea in 1976 and the church was listed in 1977. A new church hall was built in 1985, though one of the stable blocks to the west has been retained.

The plan is rectangular, with a square entrance tower to the west, and a chancel to the east abutted by a vestry to the north and a robing room to the south. The roof is covered in natural slate with blue-black angled ridge tiles, raised stone verges with kneelers, and a finial to the gable. Rainwater goods are cast-iron half-round gutters on brackets. The walling is coursed and squared basalt with lime pointing and sandstone dressings; the tower is of random rubble coursed construction with a sandstone string course between its three stages.

The original windows are cusped metal lattice lancets with margin panes, all set in ashlar stone surrounds with chamfered sills. The east gable has a geometrical decorated tracery window with a hood mould, carved head stops, and voussoirs. The west face of the tower has a simple geometric leaded lattice tracery window.

The west gable is abutted at its centre by the three-stage entrance tower, which is instepped with corner piers and rises to a castellated stone parapet with broached corner pinnacles. At belfry level the tower has pointed-headed Y-tracery louvred openings to all four sides; at the second stage there are oculus openings with louvred circular openings to all four sides. At ground floor level the tower has, to its north, a slated lean-to with a chimneystack and timber-sheeted doors, a bipartite tracery window to the west, and an entrance to the east. This entrance consists of pointed-headed timber-sheeted doors with cast-iron strap hinges set within a sandstone ashlar surround with a moulded archivolt and a hood mould bearing carved head stops, with stone voussoirs and relieving arches above. The north elevation is lit by three cusped lancets.

The east gable is abutted by the chancel, which has a triple tracery window to the gable. To the right of the chancel is the vestry, with a hipped slated roof, cusped leaded lattice windows to the north and east faces, and an opening to the west with a timber-sheeted door bearing ornate cast-iron strap hinges, set in a shouldered sandstone surround; the vestry is accessed via two stone steps. To the left of the chancel 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 is detailed as the north.

The architectural detailing throughout is well-preserved and largely intact, with fine examples of high-quality masonry and carved stonework that reflect the different phases of the building's development.

The church stands on a rectangular plot bounded by a cemetery to three sides. To the north the site is bounded by a grassy verge and a low rubblestone boundary wall with cement coping. A basalt stone boundary wall with dressed coping stones runs along the south side from west to east. Two square ashlar gate piers with pointed caps to the west support a modern cast-iron gate. 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 to its east elevation; its south gable is roughcast rendered with a central oculus. A large late 20th-century pebbledash church hall with a tarmacked parking area stands to the west. The cemetery contains a wide variety of headstones dating from the late 18th century to the present day, including some Victorian tombs with decorative cast-iron railings.