Donacavey Church of Ireland, Ecclesville Road, Fintona, Co Tyrone, BT78 2BZ

Donacavey Church of Ireland is a detached double-height church built around 1840, located on the north side of Ecclesville Road near Fintona. It is a simple but well-conceived design of considerable architectural merit, characterised by three gabled porches and an ornate bell-cote, with ornately detailed stonework that enlivens an otherwise plain exterior. Original features remain intact both internally and externally, including an unusual secondary gallery within the main gallery space, making it a neat and good quality example of a small rural church.

The church consists of a rectangular nave with a chancel to the north. The principal elevation faces south and is abutted at its centre by porches. The structure features pitched natural slate roofs with blue and black clay ridge tiles and saddleback stone verges. Walls are constructed of ashlar sandstone over a projecting plinth, with recessed bays to the nave in squared-and-snecked work. Windows are round-arched containing lattice-lights in plain sandstone surrounds.

The south-facing gable is recessed with a dentilled head, flanked by pilasters, and has a gabled bell-cote at the apex containing a round-arch opening with a bronze bell. The central gabled porch contains a rebated round-arch opening flanked by colonnettes, with replacement square-headed double-leaf vertically sheeted timber doors and a first-floor window. This central porch is flanked left and right by single-storey gabled porches, each containing a single window in a recessed bay and original timber panelled doors detailed as the principal entrance.

The west elevation contains five windows, each set within a recessed bay with a dentilled head separated by pilasters, and small circular air vents in sandstone surrounds beneath. The north gable is abutted by a chancel consisting of a recessed squared-and-snecked bay with a dentilled head flanked by pilasters, containing a large window with leaded stained glass. Round-arched openings with square-headed entrance doors face east and west. The east elevation mirrors the west, with a replacement square-headed timber entrance door.

The church is set on an elevated site within its churchyard, south of Fintona. The boundary to the road is marked by rubble basalt walling, accessed through a set-back entrance consisting of pairs of square sandstone pillars supporting cast-iron gates. Other boundaries are hedged.

The church first appears on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1854, captioned simply as "Church". It is listed in Griffith's Valuation and Annual Revision Records, valued at £40 10s 0d. Between 1897 and 1911, the occupiers are listed as the Representatives of the Church Body, leased from Amy McClintock. According to architectural historian Alastair Rowan, the church is "a primitive neo-Norman five-bay hall with bell-cote and three porches grouped together on the south gable, with colonnettes and cushion capitals flanking the doors," and was probably designed by William Farrell, who was responsible for the northern part of Ireland for the Church Commissioners at that time. The Diocesan history records that the church was consecrated on 2 August 1840. It underwent restoration in 1904, when a three-decker pulpit was replaced by a modern pulpit, prayer desk and brass lectern at a cost of £500. The new burial ground was consecrated on 9 May 1907. According to local historical records, a gallery was constructed at the west end of the church with two wooden partitions creating three boxes, with the Eccles family, the local landowners, occupying the centre box.