Cappagh Church of Ireland, Cappagh Road, Omagh, BT79 7JG

Cappagh Church of Ireland is a free-standing, double-height stone Church of Ireland church built around 1780, with a three-stage front entrance tower and spire, and a three-sided canted apse added to the rear around 1870. It is a fine example of the hall-and-tower type favoured by the Church of Ireland, one of relatively few surviving examples from the late 18th century, and retains a wealth of original fabric. The polygonal apse was added in 1870 to designs by the architectural practice Welland and Gillespie.

EXTERIOR

The roof is pitched natural slate with black clay ridge tiles, cast-iron guttering carried on wrought-iron drive-in brackets to a moulded stone eaves course, and cast-iron downpipes. There is a cut stone kneeler-coped gable to the front, with a yellow brick chimneystack to the northwest. The rear apse has a hipped roof. The walls are random rubble stone with cut stone to the rubble stone plinth course. Each nave elevation has a single buttress at its east end, with tooled roll-moulded capstones and tooled offsets. Between the window openings at upper level along the nave are blind rectangular recessed panels. All window openings are Gothic in character, with hood mouldings, tooled chamfered stone surrounds, and stone curvilinear tracery with leaded stained glass and weather glazing unless otherwise noted.

TOWER AND SPIRE

The gable-fronted west front is three bays wide, broken by a three-stage square-plan tower and spire with full-height stone ashlar corner piers. The spire is ashlar on an octagonal plan, with a stone ball finial and a blind Gothic-arched course at its base. Four octagonal spirelets rest on a moulded stone cornice at the top of the square-plan tower, positioned to correspond with the tower's corner piers. The upper stage of the tower has Gothic openings to all four sides, with hood mouldings, tooled chamfered surrounds, and timber louvres. The splayed sill of these openings continues as a platband encircling the entire tower. The second stage has a Gothic window opening with a deep chamfered tooled stone surround resting on a stone sill, with a cavetto moulding that continues as the base moulding of a broken-topped pediment to the front gable. The window at this level is a replacement 9-over-6 timber sash incorporating a Y-tracery fanlight. At ground level, the tower has a Gothic door opening with a deep moulded sandstone surround, a pair of blind stone plaques, and a hood moulding over. The door itself is a replacement hardwood panelled door with a Y-tracery timber fanlight. To either side of the door is a Gothic-arched blind panel with voussoired stonework and a sill.

SIDE AND REAR ELEVATIONS

The north side elevation has three windows to the nave, along with a further smaller window opening at the west end with voussoired stonework to the arch, a flush tooled stone surround and sill, and an iron quarry-glazed fixed window with a pivot sash. The south side elevation mirrors the north. The rear east elevation comprises the polygonal apse, built in rock-faced random coursed stone. Each side of the apse has a pointed-arched window opening with rock-faced voussoirs, tooled chamfered surrounds, and stone Y-tracery with trefoil heads, leaded stained glass, and weather glazing.

SETTING

The church stands set back from the road within its own landscaped grounds on a corner site. Several stone grave markers and tombs dating from the mid-18th century are present throughout the grounds. The site is enclosed by rubble stone walling with a bitmac hardstanding directly to the west, and the main entrance is formed by a pair of tall tooled stone piers with lanterns and a pair of replacement steel gates. A further pedestrian entrance with replacement steel gates is located slightly to the south. A single-storey stone structure to the northwest has its west gable incorporated into the boundary wall and has timber doors.

HISTORY

The church appears on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833 captioned as 'Cappagh Church', and by the third edition of 1906 the polygonal apse at the east end is clearly shown. The church replaced an earlier building in Dunmullan townland, which is captioned as the 'old church' on the first edition map. It is recorded in the Townland Valuation as 'Parish Church and Graveyard attached', valued at £14 10s 4d. Griffith's Valuation of 1858 values the church at £15 and the graveyard at £1, with the Reverend J. Byrne listed as rector. No significant changes are recorded in the Valuation Revisions.

The Ordnance Survey Memoirs state that the church was built by Dr Gibson, then rector, in 1780, describing it as 'a neat erection of cut stone with a spire' capable of holding around 300 persons, with no gallery, and warmed by flues installed by a later rector, Mr Hart. The Memoirs describe it as 'prettily situated in Mountjoy Forest'. Daniel Beaufort's journal of 1787 refers to 'the elegant church which [Dr Gibson] built… at the expense of £1,500, of which he expended £750 himself'. Samuel Lewis, writing in his Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1837), gives a slightly different account, attributing the church to 1768 and crediting Dr Gibson as having met the entire cost himself, describing it as 'a large and handsome edifice in the Grecian style with a lofty and beautiful octagonal spire'. The Dublin Builder of 15 March 1861 invited tenders for repairing the church. The apse was added in 1870 to designs by Welland and Gillespie. The Irish Builder of 15 September 1917 reports further renovations including a new roof, marble steps in the chancel, and a new sexton's house.

It has been suggested that the church may have been designed by the architect Thomas Cooley in 1768, when he was working for Archbishop Robinson of Armagh, and that it may be identical to or the prototype for a similar church at Ballymackenny, Drogheda, County Louth. Stylistic details are also said to be consistent with Cooley's work. However, no documentary evidence has been found to confirm this attribution.