St. Mary's R. C. Church, 21 Bridge Street, Newtownbutler, Co. Fermanagh, BT92 8EN

St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church stands on Bridge Street in Newtownbutler, a 19th-century Gothic barn church aligned northwest-southeast within an elevated churchyard to the south, containing mostly late 19th and 20th-century memorials.

The church was originally erected in 1821 or 1822 at a cost of £600, according to the Ordnance Survey Memoir. It was designed to hold 730 worshippers, with 130 accommodated in a gallery. The 1836 Valuation book records it measuring 85 feet by 41 feet 6 inches by 21 feet 6 inches. The present edifice is attributed by architectural historian A. Rowan to 1886, with architect George L. O'Connor, though this may represent substantial additions to the earlier structure rather than a complete rebuild. Valuation records indicate no major changes to the building between 1862 and the present day.

The principal southeast elevation is dominated by a three-stage tower centrally placed against the gable. The walls are lined-cement rendered with two-staged limestone and sandstone buttresses and sandstone dressings to all openings. The front gable features two lancet-headed openings at high level, each containing a pair of timber lancets with roundels in the spandrels, both set within drip moulds with foliated corbels. Below these is a smaller fixed timber window with similar detailing. Two identical entrance porches flank the southeast gable at ground level, each with coursed rock-faced limestone faces containing paired diagonally sheeted tongued-and-grooved doors with decorative hinges set within stepped reveals and hood moulds. The cheeks of each porch are lined cement render with fixed lancet windows.

The nave's side elevations are four windows wide, separated by buttresses. Each window comprises pairs of lancets with stone mullions and roundels in spandrels, set within stepped reveals and limestone arches, with stone cills and lead flashings. The southeast window is partially obscured by the entrance porch.

The sanctuary projects slightly from the northwest gable and features a large lancet-headed opening containing three lancets—the central one shorter—with three quatrefoils set within circles in the spandrels above. A small cusped-headed ventilation opening sits at the apex. Side altars are attached to the left and right of the sanctuary below the eaves level of the church, each with pitched natural slate roofs, moulded kneelers, and cast-iron cross finials. Both have cusped-headed lancets with trefoils above and limestone arches on their northwest faces; the left altar has an additional pair of lancets on its northeast cheek. The right altar includes a chimney detailed as a buttress.

A single-storey sacristy with basement is positioned at the southwest of the southwest-side altar, matching the church in constructional detail. Its southeast face has a window to the left and a tongued-and-grooved sheeted door with decorative cast-iron hinges to the right, set within stop-chamfered reveals. The northwest face contains a pair of windows at the right end and a group of three to the left, with an exposed basement accessed by stone steps leading to a timber louvered door in a roughly dressed stepped stone surround.

The tower is constructed in coursed sandstone and limestone with cement render to the first stage and stringcourses between each stage. The first (tallest) stage is framed by angled buttresses to the southeast gable, rising to the second stage and breaking the stringcourse. Each face has a lancet window with leaded cill, and that to the right cheek is set within a recessed lancet-headed opening with stepped reveals. A glazed quatrefoil within a square recess sits slightly below the stringcourse. The second stage features a lancet window with hood mould, its blocked ends set below the stringcourse with two courses of ashlar sandstone above. The third stage (belfry) stands free from the church, with lancet windows on each cheek containing paired louvred lancets and quatrefoils in spandrels beneath similar hood moulds. This stage is surmounted by a projecting corbelled cornice supporting a cusped panelled parapet with octagonal ashlar pinnacles and finials. The four-sided spire has decorative diagonal ridges and a cross finial.

The roof is pitched natural slate with stone skews, moulded kneeler stones, and decorative ridge crestings. An advanced eaves course supports moulded cast-iron rainwater goods. Cast-iron cross finials crown both the church and sanctuary's gables.

The church is enclosed to the road by a modern stone wall. To the front stands a circular planted grotto with a dwarf wall and gate piers supporting modern cast-iron gates.