St. Mark’s Church (C of. I.), Newtownsaville Road, Eskragh, Dunbiggan, Omagh, BT78 2RW

St. Mark's Church, Church of Ireland

A detached double-height church built circa 1820–1839, located on the east side of Newtownsaville Road in Dunbiggan, near Omagh. A modestly scaled and well-conceived design with nicely detailed stonework, the building's presence is enhanced by a tower with crenellated parapet. The location and form of the later transept is unusual and noteworthy, as is the roof structure of the Victorian additions. The church is a good example of ecclesiastical architecture of its period.

The building comprises a rectangular nave with chancel to the east, a canted transept to the north-east abutted by a lean-to vestry to the west, and a square-plan four-stage tower to the west gable. Roofs are pitched natural slate with blue and black clay ridge tiles, stone verges, and replacement square uPVC rainwater goods supported on a stone projecting eaves course.

Walls are roughly coursed squared-and-snecked rubble with a stugged finish and sandstone quoins. Replacement uPVC windows with lattice glazing are set within gothic plain projecting chamfered surrounds, each with projecting masonry cills and stone voussoirs above.

The principal elevation faces west and is centrally abutted by the four-stage tower. The exposed section to the right is blank, whilst the exposed section to the left is abutted by a stone stairwell aligned east-west, also abutting the north side of the tower. This stair accesses a timber-sheeted door at first-floor level within a square-headed chamfered surround.

The tower's first stage, at the south, contains a gothic chamfered sandstone opening with double-leaf vertically sheeted timber doors featuring decorative strap hinges. A blind opening sits above. To the west is a single gothic y-tracery fixed window; to the north, another single fixed y-tracery window. The second stage contains single square-headed tripartite windows to the south, west, and east, each within a projecting chamfered surround and hood mould with label-stops. The belfry stage features gothic louvred belfry openings at each elevation with hood mould and label-stops above. The tower terminates in a crenellated parapet with a central loophole above a dentilled string course.

The north elevation of the nave is abutted by a canted transept to the left, a late Victorian addition, with an intersecting angle containing a gabled vestry. The exposed section is blank. The canted transept, chancel, and vestry are detailed as the nave with a corbel table, square-profile cast-iron gutter, and round downpipe. Walls feature a splayed plinth. Windows are gothic metal-frame windows with lattice glazing and stained-glass margin lights. The transept contains a single window to each cheek, abutted on the right by a gabled vestry containing a gothic vertically-sheeted timber door in a stepped chamfered sandstone surround. The west elevation contains paired gothic windows with a chamfered mullion and stepped chamfered sandstone surround.

The west gable is abutted by the chancel. The east elevation contains a central geometric tracery window with leaded lattice stained glass and margin lights, set within a stepped chamfered surround with hood mould, label-stops, and stone voussoirs above. The south elevation contains paired gothic tracery windows. The north elevation is abutted by the canted transept.

The church stands on an elevated site within a churchyard containing nineteenth- and twentieth-century grave markers. The site is bounded to the road by a coursed squared-and-snecked rubble wall with saddle-back coping, accessed through an alcoved entrance consisting of square piers with pyramidal coping supporting a pair of replacement cast-metal gates.

Historical Context

A church appeared on the first Ordnance Survey map of 1833 and again on the 1854 map, with the plan remaining unchanged between these two dates. By the third map in 1906, the church had undergone some changes, including the addition of a transept to the north elevation. In the Townland Valuation Records of 1835, the church was valued at £6 7s 0d and exempted. Reverend Henry Burke is recorded as occupying a nearby house and offices.

In Griffith's Valuation, the church was leased from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners and listed as a "Church and Graveyard" valued at £7 15s 0d. The recorded dimensions are: the church 48 feet long by 24 feet broad by 16 feet high; the tower 12½ feet long by 12½ feet broad by 35 feet high. In the Annual Revision Records, the church and graveyard were valued at £11 15s 0d throughout the period covered.

The Ordnance Survey Memoirs describe Newtown Saville as an inconsiderable village in the townland of Tamlaght, with the church and Glebe House situated close to the village in the townland Dunbiggan. The church was noted to contain about 200 persons, but comfortably accommodated 180. It is further described as "small and plain," constructed on land sold off at the northern end of the parish for a perpetual cure.