St Macarten's R. C. Church, Drumswords, Rosslea, Co Fermanagh, BT92 7NQ

St Macarten's Roman Catholic Church, Drumswords, Rosslea

A barn church of the early 19th century, erected in 1824 and recorded on the Ordnance Survey 6-inch map of 1834. The building retains much of its original character and internal features.

The church is set on an elevated site within a churchyard containing 19th-century memorials, a stone shrine, and a bell tower. It is an ecclesiastically aligned structure with the sanctuary to the east gable and entrance porch to the west gable. The building has a pitched natural slate roof with lead flashing to the skews. The west gable is topped with a stone Celtic cross finial. An advanced eaves course supports moulded metal rainwater goods.

The walls are cement dashed and painted over a smooth rendered and painted basecourse with stepped quoins. The principal elevation faces south and contains four equally spaced windows. All windows are set within lancet-headed openings with stepped reveals and painted stone cills, containing Y-tracery panes with external protective glazing. The west gable is abutted at its centre by an entrance porch detailed as the main block. Each exposed face of the porch contains a squat lancet window set above the eaves level. The west end gable of the porch has a single tall narrow lancet window with splayed cement rendered and painted reveals and no cill. The left cheek is blank; the right cheek contains a pair of modern timber sheeted doors, the type used for all doors unless otherwise stated.

The north elevation is blank and abutted to the left end and centre by a sacristy, boiler house, and toilet block respectively. All have cement dashed and painted walls. The sacristy is set flush with the east gable of the main block and has a pitched natural slate roof. Its west face is abutted at the extreme right end by a tall chimney rising above the eaves level of the church. The sacristy has two full-height lancet windows detailed as the principal windows. Its north face is blank; its east face has a door to the left and a lancet window to the right. The boiler house, set immediately to the right of the sacristy, has a lean-to natural slate roof. Its left cheek is blank. The north face has a modern glazed timber door with lower louvred panel. The right cheek contains a pair of modern sheeted cupboard doors. The toilet block has a lean-to natural slate roof with two doors to the right end of its north face and a small modern timber window with concrete cill to the left.

The east gable of the church is blank and abutted at its centre by a lower projecting sanctuary, detailed as the church without quoins. Each exposed face of the sanctuary has a lancet window with thin concrete cill.

The bell tower, located to the northwest of the church, is constructed in concrete and plainly detailed. It rests on four steep steps. The bell is operated by a pulley-wheel; makers' mark and date are not legible.

The shrine, located to the east of the church, is constructed in random rubble stone and is enclosed by modern cast-iron railings.

The church sits within a churchyard also containing 19th-century memorials, the shrine, concrete bell tower, and a Parochial House to the northeast. The churchyard is enclosed to the road by a modern stone wall with concrete copings and modern cast-iron gates. To the south is a large car park.