Drumquin Methodist Church, Omagh Road, Drumquin, Omagh, Co Tyrone, BT78 4QY

Drumquin Methodist Church is a detached single-cell church of simple gothic character, built in 1878 and located on the east side of Omagh Road in Drumquin.

The church consists of a rectangular nave with a single-storey gabled porch to the north-west and a single-storey brick extension to the east, added circa 1980. The roof is pitched with asbestos tiles and blue-black clay ridge tiles over timber boarded eaves, with raised sandstone verges on cavetto moulded kneelers. A gabled ashlar sandstone bellcote to the west contains a chamfered pointed-arched aperture with a bronze bell.

The walls are ruled-and-lined rendered with dressed sandstone quoins over a splayed plinth. Windows are paired with cusped round-arched heads in stepped sandstone surrounds, containing leaded lattice stained glass lights. The principal elevation faces north and contains two windows to the left. A gabled porch on the north-west has a pointed-arched rebated chamfered entrance opening surmounted by a hood mould with label-stops. The entrance contains square-headed double-leaf vertically-sheeted timber doors, surmounted by a tympanum inscribed "AD 1878", accessed by two stone steps. Small square-headed windows appear to the east and west elevations. The south elevation contains three windows. The west gable contains a pair of pointed-arched windows in stepped sandstone surrounds with a shared moulded sill, surmounted by a single small square-headed window at the apex.

The church was extensively restored following fire damage around 1970, when the roof was destroyed and subsequently re-roofed. An extension was added to the east following this restoration work, completed around 1979. The building retains much of its original character and displays good stonework detailing, though it is not among the finest examples of the type.

The site is elevated within the churchyard, bounded to the road at the west by rock-faced concrete walling with saddleback coping, and to other sides by hedging and planting. Pedestrian access is through recent iron gates leading to concrete steps at the north-west. The gutters and downpipes are replacement uPVC half-round and round profiles.

Methodism in the Drumquin area began in 1767 when travelling preacher John Smith visited from Armagh. John Wesley preached in the area, including Drumquin, in 1771, and a circuit was established at Lisleen in 1778 with over 600 members. In 1786 the Lisleen circuit was divided, and Drumquin became part of the new Omagh circuit. Following the split between Wesleyan and Primitive Methodists in 1816, a revival between 1823 and 1826 saw membership increase dramatically. Methodists operated a Class System where members met in each other's homes for prayer and instruction; each class had about ten members, with classes established in virtually every townland around Omagh, extending to Sixmilecross, Gortin and Drumquin. In 1858 the Methodists in Drumquin converted an old granary in the village centre into a church, which seated 100 people. This building was replaced in 1878 by the present church, erected at a total cost of £674 2s 2d, with a capacity for 150 people. The church was built as a Wesleyan church in the same year as the re-unification of the Wesleyan and Primitive branches. It first appears on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1905 and is recorded in valuation revisions from 1889 as a Methodist Meeting House with land valued at £15 5s.