St Marys RC Church, Aghabrack, Lisnaragh Road, Donemana, Strabane, Co Tyrone, BT82 0SD

St Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Aghabrack

A Roman Catholic church of cruciform plan, dated 1897 and remodelled circa 1940, located on the east side of Lisnaragh Road in Donemana near the hamlet of Aghabrack. The church occupies an elevated site and is a significant architectural landmark with considerable social interest for the local community.

The building displays good style and proportions, retaining much fine original detailing. It comprises a nave aligned north-south with double-height transepts to east and west, a bowed bay containing the sanctuary at the north end, and a sacristy and store to the east. An entrance porch is positioned at the south gable, with a secondary entrance porch to the west in the re-entrant angle between nave and transept.

Externally, the walls are roughcast rendered with a projecting chamfered plinth and stepped angle buttresses with offsetting and gablets. Roofs are pitched natural slate with blue-black clay ridge tiles, saddle-back stone verges with corbelled kneelers and intermediate kneelers, and Celtic-cross finials. Ogee-profile cast-iron rainwater goods are supported on a projecting eaves course with paired corbels.

Windows throughout are Gothic stained-glass lancet windows contained within rebated stepped block-marked surrounds with splayed cills. The principal south elevation is abutted at its centre by a single-storey lean-to entrance porch surmounted by a central rose window in a rebated surround with hoodmould and label stops, and a Celtic-cross finial to the apex. The south elevation also contains a wall-head dormer with a window and blank oculus above. The entrance porch has a natural slate lean-to roof and is accessed by a single concrete step via a double-leaf vertically-sheeted timber door within a stepped block-marked surround.

The west elevation is abutted at its left by the double-height gabled transept and contains three paired windows divided by buttresses. The west gable of the transept contains three windows surmounted by a blank quatrefoil with a recessed blank trefoil above. A secondary lean-to entrance porch abuts the re-entrant angle, detailed as the main porch, with paired windows in its south elevation and a single-leaf vertically-sheeted timber door in its west gable, accessed by a concrete ramp.

The north gable is abutted at its centre by a lower apse with a conical natural slate roof containing four diminished-height windows, with a recessed blank trefoil to the apex. The east elevation is abutted at its right by the double-height gabled transept containing three paired windows divided by buttresses. A pitched extension containing the sacristy abuts the transept's north elevation, detailed as the main structure with a pitched natural slate roof and chimney to the east gable. The sacristy extension's east elevation contains a single replacement uPVC window, whilst its north elevation contains two replacement timber doors accessing the store, and its west gable contains a painted pointed-arched vertically-sheeted timber door accessed by two concrete steps.

The church dates from 1897, with architect E J Toye of Strand, Londonderry. The Irish Builder announced in 1896 that the tender of Mr J Harkin of Donemana, Strabane had been accepted at £2,293. The building was reconstructed in 1940-1941, with architect W J Doherty assisting Rev. P. Gormley in the works. Historical records indicate that a previous wooden church existed in Aghabrack from approximately the 1830s, which was entirely replaced by the present building. The church first appears on the third-edition Ordnance Survey map of 1905, captioned "RC Church", with a burial ground also marked.

The church sits on an elevated site with graveyard to the south-east containing twentieth-century grave markers. The site is bounded to the east by random rubble walling. The southern entrance to the boundary comprises an alcoved gateway with vehicular and pedestrian accesses, flanked by square-plan smooth-rendered piers with chamfered corners, copings, and ball finials supporting cast-iron gates. The extent of listing encompasses the church, gates, and gate piers.