St Patrick's RC Church, Castlefin Road, Churchtown TL, Castlederg, Co Tyrone, BT81 7BT

St Patrick's Roman Catholic Church is a free-standing double-height stone and rendered building located on the east side of Castlefin Road in Castlederg. Built around 1845 and extended circa 1875, the church was further enlarged with the addition of a three-stage steeple to the south around 1885 and a vestry to the south-east around 1875. The building was refurbished and restored around 1995, at which time an ancillary wing was added to the west gable and a further entrance porch was added to the north.

The church is cruciform in plan. The pitched roof is covered with replacement natural slate and features roll-moulded black clay ridge tiles. All gables have stone ashlar fractables with offsets, gableted and corbelled kneeler stones surmounted by stone Celtic cross finials. The guttering is replacement ogee-moulded metal on plastic fascia with metal downpipes.

The walling comprises random rock-faced stone with dressed quoins and a dressed splayed plinth course. The earlier body of the church to the west has replacement roughcast lime render with dressed soldier quoins and simulated render quoin-work to match the in-and-out work of the later extensions. The recent extensions are constructed in rough-hewn stone walling with quoins and openings formed in machine-cut sandstone ashlar. A stone chimney rises from the east gable of the vestry with a decorative round stone pot and offsets forming a breakfront to this elevation.

The windows to the nave are double-height trefoil-headed lancets formed in chamfered sandstone in-and-out work with flush splayed sills. Two lancets are located to the south nave and three to the north nave. Three lancets to the upper part of the west gable are repeated on a larger scale to the gables of the north and south transepts. The east chancel gable features a large pointed-arched window formed in chamfered sandstone ashlar with hood moulding, square label-stops and a flush stone relieving arch. The window contains geometric tracery in standstone with five trefoil-headed lancets and three roundels, all containing stained glass. A lean-to side chapel is set back within the re-entrant angle between the chancel and the north transept, with a pointed-arched sandstone panel containing a cinquefoil stained glass window.

The south elevation comprises the single-storey two-bay vestry elevation flanked by the double-height gabled south transept. The vestry features a tall chimney forming a breakfront, flanked by trefoil-headed lancet windows. A square-headed window opening to the vestry is formed in chamfered sandstone ashlar with three rectangular leaded lights and two stone mullions. A square-headed door opening is also formed in sandstone ashlar with chamfered reveals, a narrow leaded sidelight and an inset vertically-sheeted timber door. To the left of the tower are two remaining bays of the south nave.

The three-stage tower has a square plan and is built in coursed and snecked rock-faced stone with dressed quoins and angled buttresses to the lower stages with offsets. The broached spire is formed in dressed ashlar stone and is surmounted by a stone finial and cross with four lucarnes to the lower part of the spire. The bell stage is defined by a moulding at the base of the spire, repeated at the base of the bell stage. A pair of pointed-arched openings to all four sides have hood mouldings, square label stops and trefoil-headed openings with timber louvers. The corners have angled piers with offsets. A pair of roundels are present to the middle stage on the west elevation. A trefoil-headed niche on the south elevation has a gabled canopy and finial, containing a replacement stone effigy of St Patrick. A pair of lancets to the lower stage appear on the west elevation. A pointed-arched door opening on the south elevation has a cavetto hood moulding, square label stops, deeply moulded jambs with a pair of colonettes and a replacement double-leaf vertically-sheeted door with stone step. A free-standing font sits to the left of the entrance with a marble bowl on a pink marble urn and limestone base.

The double-height west gable is rendered with a roundel to the apex containing a quatrefoil glazed opening. A single-storey gabled ancillary building is built to the centre of this gable in rubble stone with machine-cut quoins, fractable and openings. A square-headed door opening with sidelight formed in sandstone gives access to the west end of the church with double-leaf vertically-sheeted timber doors.

The north side elevation comprises a lean-to side chapel to the left, set slightly back from the double-height gabled north transept with details matching the south elevation. The three-bay rendered nave is interrupted by a recently built gabled structure with chimney abutting the nave, all built in rubblestone with machine-cut quoins. This structure is attached to the side of the transept by a flat-roofed entrance porch built in machine-cut sandstone with a square-headed door opening with double-leaf vertically-sheeted timber doors.

The church sits within a graveyard occupying a substantial area to the north and enclosed by a rubblestone wall along the road to the east and north. The east chancel gable fronts onto Castlefin Road with a replacement steel gate abutting the vestry and the adjoining terrace, with paved south side area and paved footpaths encircling the entire church. The earliest noted gravemarkers in the graveyard are dated to the 1850s. To the north of the graveyard stands a 1970s building which served as a replacement church for approximately twenty years and is now empty.