St. Mary's Church, Crockanboy Road, Rousky, Gortin, Co. Tyrone, BT79 8PX

St. Mary's Church, Rousky

St. Mary's is a plain double-height rendered Roman Catholic church located on the north side of Crockanboy Road, Rousky, Gortin, County Tyrone. The building dates from 1882, though the site has a longer history: it appears to have originated around 1750 when Catholic worship was beginning to receive some tolerance, and was extended in 1800 by Father Bernard O'Neill before being substantially rebuilt and raised in height in 1882 by Father Peter McGeown, as recorded on a marble datestone inset to the south gable.

The church is T-shaped on plan with an additional gabled projection to the south, creating a truncated cruciform effect, and has a lean-to extension to the north-east. The pitched roof is of replacement natural slate with crested terracotta ridge tiles and filigree Celtic cross finials to each gable, the southern example being more ornate. Rainwater goods are half-round aluminium.

The walling is painted rendered with a projecting plinth to the north, east, and part of the south wall; the remainder is painted. Windows throughout are diamond lattice lancets with some coloured glass and secondary glazing, fitted with painted stone sills and painted surrounds. Doors are replacement hardwood sheeted. The south elevation, facing the road, comprises three windows to either side of the central gabled projection, which is itself two windows wide. The marble datestone on this gable records the church's construction and rebuilding dates. Loudspeakers are set into roundels at the apex of all gables.

The west gable contains a double-leaf door with a painted holy-water font set to the wall at its right, surmounted by a gothic window. The north elevation is largely blank save for a central gabled projection containing a gothic window to the upper level and a diminished lancet to the ground floor left; a double-leaf door is positioned to the right cheek of this projection. A modern lean-to extension abuts this projection to the left re-entrant angle. The east gable mirrors the detailing of the west gable.

The building's construction history reflects the constraints of its time. Local tradition holds that the landlord, Cole-Hamilton, permitted the church only on condition that it was not visible from the river, the mountain, or Beltrim demesne—conditions met by St. Mary's hidden location. Father O'Neill is recorded as obtaining the site from Billy Tagart, ostensibly to build a stable for his horse. When the building was raised in height in 1882, the new wall was simply built directly on top of the old, resulting in a band of smaller stones visible in places throughout the wall where plaster has been removed—stones described as "just the sort of stone one might gather for a ditch." In places the walls are brick-built. They have no foundation other than those of the new sacristy, and rest on the ground, stabilised only by a reinforced plinth constructed in Father O'Loughlin's time in 1958.

The interior originally had a clay floor and was without seats until 1906. Three galleries are at different heights. Within living memory, the floor itself had three levels, with step downs in front of the women's aisle gallery and the men's aisle gallery, reflecting the complex vertical organisation of the space. The level of the graveyard against the rear wall was historically high enough to allow one almost to touch the aisle gallery window, a circumstance that accounts for the awkward placement today of the holy water font outside the aisle doorway.

Substantial alterations have taken place since the mid-twentieth century. In the 1950s, a new level wooden floor was installed, a passageway with retaining wall was dug around the church, and the original wooden altar was replaced with one of green and white marble. Father James McGonagle later changed the altar to face the people, at which time a new set of stations of the cross was installed. Further restoration took place in the 1990s, during which the building was reslated, a new sacristy was built, and the boiler was moved inside the building. New doors, a confessional room, gallery fronts, and new sanctuary furniture were installed, including a carved Austrian altar frontal and a new cross with carved figures, all of wood. This restoration was designed by Gerard Loughrey of Loughrey, Agnew, Derry, with Gerard Brogan as contractor.

The church is set within a sloping churchyard that rises to the north, containing a variety of grave markers, the earliest noted from 1824, though the majority date from the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Local tradition holds that the burial ground was used in early times by both Catholic and Protestant. The churchyard is bounded to the road by a painted roughcast retaining boundary wall. Pedestrian access is via a concrete path to the centre, accessed by a pair of decorative cast-iron gates with a Cross finial, supported on square piers of painted squared rubble stone with brick quoins. Vehicular access is provided at the right via mild steel gates. Concrete perimeter paths surround the building.

The church appears on Ordnance Survey maps from 1834 and 1854 as a simple rectangular structure captioned "R C Chap" with a burying ground. By the third edition of 1908, the church appears substantially as it does now, with additions to the north and south, captioned as "St Mary's R C Church" with associated graveyard and parochial house. Townland Valuation Records from 1828–40 record a "Roman Catholic Chapel" valued at £5 10s 0d. Griffith's Valuation from 1856–64 records "R.C. Chapel and yard," valued under exemptions. An 1881 entry records the addition of a "Stable and car ho. built by congregation for convenience of those attending worship."

Despite the loss of some original fabric and detailing, including the verges and kneelers to the exterior and the refurbishment of the interior, the church retains special architectural and historic interest as a good example of the T-plan form characteristic of rural vernacular churches. Its plain character and the survival of its king post trusses, combined with its layers of construction history visible in the stonework and its evolution over more than a century, give St. Mary's distinctive character and local significance.