Belfry in grounds of, St Patricks RC Graveyard, Dooish Road, Drumquin, Co Tyrone, BT78 4RA

Belfry in grounds of St Patrick's RC Graveyard, Dooish Road, Drumquin

A detached two-storey belfry built around 1880, located on the west side of Dooish Road within St Patrick's graveyard. The building is square-on-plan and presents as a solid structure with fortified corners and few openings, making it an unusual and ornate feature of the graveyard and the small settlement.

The belfry is constructed of roughly coursed rubble with circular piers to the corners, each surmounted by segmental coping. The roof is pitched natural slate with blue and black clay ridge tiles, and a stone Celtic cross finial to the north. The principal elevation faces south and is largely blank, but features a projecting central bay surmounted by a substantial bellcote. This bellcote is constructed of ashlar sandstone with square-headed form and displays fine stonework detailing. It contains a pointed-arched aperture holding a bronze bell, with flat coping surmounted by pinnacles and a Celtic cross finial. The west elevation is blank. The north elevation contains a square-headed vertically-sheeted timber entrance door with sandstone lintel at ground floor right. The east elevation has a single window at first-floor level; evidence of a former opening at ground floor is shown by a sandstone lintel and differing stonework. All windows are square-headed with timber frames, fixed glazing and concrete sills. Rainwater goods comprise cast-iron half-round gutters and round downpipes.

The belfry first appears on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1905. Historical records show that the associated church was listed in Townland Valuations (1828-40) at a value of £22 2s, and in Griffith's Valuation (1856-64) at £25, with the lessor recorded as Reverend Thomas S Blacker. By 1905 the valuation had increased by £1 due to the addition of land. The old church, fully described in Ordnance Survey Memoirs, was a substantial building with attendances of 1,000 to 1,200 people. The belfry is first mentioned in valuation records in 1933, when it was valued together with the church, parochial hall and graveyard. The 1933 valuer recorded the belfry's dimensions as 20 by 17 by 19 feet and estimated its cost at £215. The valuer applied a 3½ per cent deduction to the plot's valuation, noting that the church was 'larger than necessary' and the belfry was 'little used'. The church was subsequently rebuilt around 1980. The building remains largely intact, though there is evidence of changes to openings at some point in its history.

The site is elevated and situated within the graveyard, which contains a range of 19th and 20th-century grave markers and memorials. It is bounded to the road at east by roughcast walling with concrete coping; access is via a pair of steel gates supported on square piers. All other sides are bounded by hedging. St Patrick's RC Church, built around 1980, stands to the north of the graveyard.