St. Tierney's RC Church, Rosslea, Co Fermanagh, BT92

St Tierney's RC Church, Rosslea

St Tierney's is an early 19th-century barn church of considerable architectural and historical importance, set within a mature and well-planted churchyard. The building was constructed around 1800, with a tower and entrance porch added circa 1834. A sympathetic two-storey sacristy was added in 1987.

The church is aligned northwest-southeast, parallel with Church Road, with its principal elevation facing southwest. The pitched natural slate roof has stone verges and kneelers to each gable; the southeast gable is topped with a cloverleaf cross finial. The walls are cement-dashed and painted with stepped dressed stone quoins and sandstone dressings to all openings.

The southwest elevation features four equally spaced lancet windows with Y-tracery. Each window has splayed and tooled sandstone reveals and a cill, with a reeded colonette framing the window and a moulded head. All windows contain fixed leaded and colour-margin-paned lights with decorative central panels. The northwest gable, abutted by the tower at centre, and the northeast elevation each have lancet windows containing pairs of 6/4 sliding sashes with horns and traceried heads.

The tower, added circa 1834, is of three stages constructed in coursed stone with V-jointed stepped quoins and moulded stringcourse defining each stage. All openings have hood moulds. The first stage contains the principal entrance to the southwest face, set within chamfered reveals and surmounted by a sheeted timber door and tympanum. Above the door is a dressed stone shield inscribed "DEO / Optimo Maximo / DEDICATUM / MDCCCXXXIV / CONDITUM" (Dedicated to God the Best and Greatest, founded 1834). The northwest face of the first stage has a narrow lattice window within a lancet opening with stepped reveals, sweeping cill, and hood mould with label stops. The second stage has a circular window with spoke-glazing to each exposed face, that to the northwest set within a diamond-shaped reveal. The third stage stands free from the church and rises to a crenellated parapet with tall pointed finials at each corner, each with cusped mouldings. Each face contains a tall lancet opening with pairs of cusped-headed timber louvres.

The entrance porch, also circa 1834, is a two-storey structure set below the eaves level of the main block. Its southwest face features a pair of timber sheeted doors with decorative furniture within a chamfered reveal and hood mould, surmounted by a circular spoke-glazed window. The southeast gable has lancet-headed openings to each floor; the ground-floor opening contains a pair of Y-tracery 2/2 sliding sashes within chamfered reveal and hood mould, whilst the first floor has a pair of 2x3 casements with traceried transom. Both openings lack cills but have narrow lead flashing beneath them. The porch roof is concealed behind an embattled stone parapet.

A boiler house, set flush with the northeast elevation to the right of the entrance porch, has a lean-to natural slate roof with a small skylight. Its southeast face contains a 2/2 sliding sash window with painted concrete cill and a pair of modern timber louvred doors.

The sacristy, added circa 1987, is a sympathetic two-storey extension on the northeast elevation. It has a pitched artificial slate roof and cement-dashed walls matching the church. Its northwest face has a tongue-and-groove sheeted and painted door with decorative furniture, and a 6/6 sliding sash window with horns and painted cill. The first floor contains two windows of diminished height. The northeast face has two windows to each floor.

Interior

The interior is of classical character with particular architectural interest. A gallery spans three internal walls, and the chancel features a highly embellished central altar screen with painting.

Churchyard and Setting

The church stands within a mature, well-planted churchyard containing numerous 18th- and 19th-century stone memorials, some with wrought-iron enclosures. The earliest recorded memorial, dating to circa 1700 and located southeast of the church, is now missing its upper half. A Celtic cross erected in 1949 commemorates three local United Irishmen—Patrick Smith, John Connolly, and Brian McMahon—who were hanged in Enniskillen in 1797. Another notable memorial, dated circa 1824, stands to the right on entry and bears the inscription "Dear friend as you pass by / as you are now so once was I / As I am now so you must be / prepare the way to follow me", to which local people have traditionally appended the riposte "to follow you I'd be quite content, but I'd be damned if I knew which way that you went!"

A weeping willow tree stands to the southwest of the church. The churchyard is enclosed on all sides by a rubble stone wall with field stone embattlements, curving inward at the entrance to a pair of square-section V-jointed dressed stone gate piers with fluted frieze and moulded cornice. These support a pair of wrought-iron gates with scrolled finials.

The church shares a similar plan form with Massmount Church in County Donegal and the Old Church at Garrison, County Fermanagh.