Church Ruins, Former R C Church, Drumsurn Village, Drumsurn Road, Limavady, Co Londonderry

Former Roman Catholic Church and Mass House, Drumsurn

This is a ruinous pre-emancipation Catholic church or Mass House dating to 1796, now an ivy-covered ruin with an associated graveyard. The church was abandoned in 1902 and remains an important historical remnant in the local community.

The building presents a very long rectangular plan form, measuring externally 25 metres by 6 metres (approximately 70 feet by 17 feet), giving it proportions of 4:1 with a notably narrow width. The structure consists of six pointed windows on the south side and five on the north, with a square-headed door in the east gable and another door at the west end of the north wall. The walls survive to wall plate level, though in parts of the north wall they rise only to 1200mm in height. The north door and most of the windows on the north side have lost their heads. The pointed windows on the south are framed with brick pointed arches one brick deep. Both gables remain intact to apex level.

The walls are constructed of basalt with large roughly squared quoins. Much of the stone appears to have been gathered from fields rather than quarried, particularly at the tops of walls. Wide vertical joints display some galleting, though it is unclear whether this is contemporary with the original construction. A line of brick runs along at eaves level above the pointed arches.

The building sits close to and parallel with the county road, separated from the highway by only three metres and a stone wall. A generous graveyard with surviving headstones lies behind the church.

According to the Ordnance Survey Memoir, the chapel was built in 1796 at a cost of £166 and 5 shillings, funded by subscription. The site and yard, occupying one rood of Irish plantation measure, were given in perpetuity by the Marquis of Waterford. The building was designed to accommodate about 400 persons.

Bishop J K O'Doherty later recorded that the parish originally had four churches, two of which were in close proximity and one in very dilapidated condition. The priest could not adequately serve both nearby churches, and their combined congregations would barely form a single properly sized congregation. The bishop therefore directed the parish priest Father Loughery to secure a more centrally located site between the old churches of Drumsurn and Gelvin for a new building to replace both. Though Father Loughery was instructed to find a central location, the new church of St Matthew's was erected only a few hundred yards from these ruins. Father Dan O'Doherty, a curate in the parish, collected funds throughout Ireland for an entire year to finance the new church. Many parishioners opposed the consolidation, but the new building proceeded regardless.