Donemana Presbyterian Church, Church View, Donemana, Strabane, Co Tyrone, BT82 0PB

Donemana Presbyterian Church is a rectangular sandstone church dated 1876, built on the site of an earlier Presbyterian church on the east side of Church View, Donemana. It was designed by architect William McElwee of Derry and constructed by builder Robert Colhoun, also of Derry, at an estimated cost of £1,850. The church replaced a predecessor building that had fallen into such disrepair that by 1836 the congregation had been forced to worship in a public house. The new building was erected during the ministry of Reverend John McMath, ordained on 25 September 1873, on the original Secession Church leasehold site, following legal steps to vest the land in the elders of the congregation. It was added to the Valuation Revisions in 1877 as the "Presbyterian church and yard," valued at £50. The congregation itself originated in 1798, when seceders from Badoney parish formed a new congregation.

The plan is a simple rectangular nave aligned north to south, with a one-and-a-half-storey extension added around 1990 to the south gable, which replaced and extended the original minister's and session rooms. The nave walls are constructed in squared-and-snecked sandstone with stepped quoins and a splayed plinth. The roofs were re-covered in fibre cement slate around 1990, retaining clay crested ridge tiles and deep overhanging eaves finished in uPVC sheeting, with replacement cast-metal ogee-profile rainwater goods throughout. The windows throughout the nave are pointed-segmental-headed, set within stepped chamfered surrounds with splayed cills, and filled with latticed stained glass and margin lights.

The principal gable faces north and is arranged as a central projecting bay flanked by recessed bays to left and right. The central entrance consists of paired timber sheeted doors set within a chamfered sandstone surround divided by a chamfered sandstone pier, surmounted by a gothic arched panel containing a carved datestone. This is all recessed within a rebated chamfered stone surround, finished with a triangulated spandrel, a continuous string course, and a carved stone finial. Access is by replacement steps in paviors with concrete plinth walls supporting a cast-metal handrail to the side and centre; a ramp at the west also serves the entrance level. Above the principal entrance is a plate-tracery rose window comprising four stained glass quatrefoil windows and four smaller stained glass trefoil windows. At the apex is a square-headed belfry opening, above which sits a gabled bell-cote with a pointed-segmental-headed opening; there is no bell. The flanking bays are diminished in height and each contains a single window of reduced size.

The east elevation is recessed to the right, where a lower gabled bay projects in line with the nave. The exposed section to the left contains five windows, of which the second and third from the left are replacements. The right bay contains a single window at first floor level and a square-headed blank opening at the apex. The south gable is abutted at its centre by the circa 1990 one-and-a-half-storey extension; the exposed sections of the original gable contain a window on each side and a square-headed opening at the apex. The west elevation mirrors the east in its detailing, though four of its windows are replacements.

The south extension has a roof detailed in the same manner as the nave, but its walls are roughcast rendered. Its windows are 4/1 timber casements with projecting masonry cills unless otherwise stated. The west elevation of the extension contains a vertically sheeted timber door at the centre, a single window to the left, and a dipartite window to the right. The south gable of the extension contains three windows at ground floor and a window at first floor, the central first-floor window being dipartite and set within a round-arched-headed opening. The east elevation of the extension contains a dipartite window at the centre.

Inside, the church has been substantially altered and refurbished, though some notable original details survive, including some of the original latticed glazed windows with margin lights. According to The Irish Builder of 1876, the original interior included a porch of 26 feet by 10 feet with stairs on either side rising to a gallery at the west end, open pews accommodating 650 persons on the ground floor and gallery, choir seats and a platform pulpit at the east end, a partly open roof with a ceiling at approximately half height — some 32 feet from the floor — and all woodwork stained and varnished with metal sashes and tinted glass throughout. During the ministry of Reverend Samuel Logan, ordained in 1920, renovation and improvements were carried out on the church and manse at a cost of approximately £700.

The church stands in a roadside setting. The site is bounded to the west by smooth rendered low walling with saddleback coping and cast-iron railings, and to the south by a random rubble wall with soldier coping. The site is entered from the west via concrete steps flanked by smooth rendered piers supporting cast-iron gates. A single marble grave marker erected around 1890 stands to the north. A car park and church hall are located to the west.