Holy Trinity Church, Culmore, Londonderry, BT48 7RS

Holy Trinity Church is a fine example of an Ecclesiastical Commission's neo-Gothic style small rural Church of Ireland church, solidly built and robustly constructed. It remains very well preserved with good internal fittings, positioned on a historic late 17th-century site. The church is surrounded by a well-filled graveyard containing the ruins of the late 17th-century church. A fine boundary wall with railings and gates fronts onto the Culmore Road.

The church is a small cruciform building constructed of local whinstone with sandstone dressings. It comprises a gabled nave, chancel, and transepts with a mixture of diagonal shouldered and squared buttresses. A north-west porch stands beneath a bell tower, with the west gable fronting the Culmore Road.

The plain west gable is dominated by a large four-light pointed window with moulded hood. Each light is cusped with three sextets above and a mouchette in the centre. The gable features sandstone barges and kneelers with sturdy diagonal buttresses at the south-west corner, terminating in squat finials. To the north of the west gable is a square entrance porch with a pointed door facing north, flanked by shouldered diagonal buttresses and narrow pointed lancets on each side wall. Above the nave eaves, the square porch broaches above a string course to form an octagonal section with tiny narrow lancets in each alternate face. The arrises are formed of sandstone quoins. Above the pendentive a deep weathered double string course begins the octagonal belfry, which is decorated on each facet with a slim pointed louvred opening. Over the belfry, the base of the smooth sandstone spire overhangs with a triple moulded string course. The simple plain arrised spire ends in a blunt point surmounted by a lightning conductor terminal.

The north side of the nave has two lancets and projects the shallow transept with plain buttresses on either side. The nave wall extends a short distance on the other side of the transept before recessing to form the chancel, the north wall of which has two narrow lancets. The east gable has a central three-cusped light to an un-hooded pointed window with three cinquefoils above, flanked on either side by shouldered diagonal buttresses. At the bottom of this wall is a door to a room below. Between the south side of the chancel and south transept is the vestry with a square-headed doorway adjacent to the gable buttress. The vestry has a small pointed window on its south wall. The south transept is similar to the north, featuring a pointed sandstone-faced relieving arch with an elongated mouchette within.

The north boundary wall contains a semi-circular arched recess with a well. Ground level falls steeply along this wall from the Culmore Road. To the churchyard, the wall maintains a constant height of approximately 750 millimetres, repeating along the Culmore Road where it is interrupted by cast iron railings. The entrance gates, 1500 millimetres high, have cut sandstone piers with kneller stone heads surmounted on the north-west by a fine cast iron lamp post rising a further metre. A second, less ornate post is mounted on the boundary wall opposite the church entrance. The gate matches the railing and is of cast iron. The church is sited within an approximately rectangular enclosure which falls eastward towards Culmore Point.

Originally a Chapel of Ease of the parish of Templemore, it was absorbed into Muff, County Donegal, in 1916. The Church of the Holy Trinity was designed in 1866 by John Guy Ferguson, who became diocesan architect, and built in 1867. It was subscribed by parishioners along with a grant from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. The Irish Society gave the ground and an endowment and donated the stained glass in the east window and the organ. The Irish Society also assisted with the erection of the front boundary wall in 1867. The lectern, oak panelling, and wooden wall memorial serve as a war memorial of 1914-18. The transept windows were donated by the Wylie family, who also donated the Culmore new rectory for use of the curate.

In 1933 the church was renovated with the following work: retiling of the chancel floor, passages and porch; installation of a carved oak eagle lectern; marble chancel steps; and an oak Communion table completed in 1934. Right Reverend Robert McNeil Boyd, Bishop of Killale 1943-45 and Bishop of Derry 1945-58, is buried at the east side of the graveyard.