844 Glenshane Road, Dungiven, Co Londonderry, BT47 4PQ

844 Glenshane Road, Dungiven

This seven-bay rendered building has limited architectural pretension but represents an interesting example of change of use from church to school in the late 19th century. It holds locally significant social history as an early church building of 1819 that replaced a former 18th-century thatched chapel.

The structure features a gabled central projection with two narrow pointed windows retaining their original cast iron diamond glazing and a pointed hood moulding above a plaque on a blank wall. On the east side of the projection is a single modern window. On either side of the projection, each wing has a central doorway with a 12-pane double-hung sliding sash window on each side, and above each door a 6-pane fanlight with square heads. One door has been altered to greater width. The walls are smooth rendered and painted with plaster quoins that do not return on the wing gables. Rafter feet are exposed under gutters which are PVC. The roof has natural slate, with the ridge of the projection being lower than the main ridge. There are no chimneys. Pairs of windows appear on the wing gables, and the back return contains school meals accommodation. The plaque reads: "Dungiven / male and female / national school / 1893".

The building was adapted from a former church erected around 1819 to replace a thatched chapel established in the townland of Cashel in 1776. Galleries were added to the church in 1825-26. The church was abandoned in 1883 and ten years later, in 1893, was converted to a school building. According to the Ordnance Survey Memoirs, the original church was "a plain rectangular building 100 feet by 30 broad on the outside, placed parallel to and a short distance from the road to Maghera" with entrances in each gable and a principal entrance facing the road, surmounted by an Italian stone cross bearing the inscription "In hoc signo vinces". The walls were substantially built, and the interior was not yet fitted with pews at the time of recording. Two galleries had been recently erected, one at each end. The building cost £450. The altar likely stood in the long wall, and the present projection may have been the sacristy with the principal entrance on the opposite side. Considerable alteration occurred during conversion to school purposes.

The building is currently used as a builders store. It is set back from Glenshane Road, opposite Priory Lane, with residential development on both sides. The ground is concreted, possibly indicating a former playground area, and the site is enclosed by a high chain-link fence.