Upper Langfield Parish Church, Drumrawn, Drumquin, Omagh

Upper Langfield Parish Church is a free-standing hall and tower Church of Ireland church built around 1800, situated on an elevated wooded site near Drumrawn, Drumquin, Omagh. The building exemplifies early nineteenth-century ecclesiastical architecture with considerable historical integrity.

The church is rectangular in plan, oriented west to east, with a gabled chancel added to the east around 1870 and a gabled vestry added to the north at the same period. The structure sits within a burial ground to the south, accessed by a curved lane enclosed by rubble-stone walls.

The main roof is pitched natural slate with black clay ridge tiles, while the chancel and vestry carry roll-moulded clay ridge tiles. A projecting rendered eaves course with steel guttering on iron drive-through brackets and cast-iron downpipes finishes the north elevation; asbestos rainwater goods are fitted to the south.

The most distinctive feature is the three-stage crenellated tower, slightly embedded into the west gable of the hall. The tower has cut-stone coping to its crenellations and two stone string courses to the middle stage. The walling is of rubble stone with squared quoins. Gothic openings in voussoired stones with inset brick arches appear on three outer sides of the upper stage and to the west at ground level. The upper stage has cast-iron quarry-glass windows, now missing to the north and replaced with timber louvres to the west. The main entrance is via a tongue-and-groove timber door with cast-iron furniture, opening onto two stone steps, positioned on the south elevation.

The main hall is three windows wide, rendered in rough-cast with a smooth render plinth course. Window openings are arched with recessed stone ashlar surrounds fitted with leaded coloured-glass windows.

The chancel and vestry, of later date, are constructed of squared coursed and snecked stone walling with stone ashlar gables rising above roof level. The chancel gable features a pair of round-headed window openings in tooled stone ashlar surrounds with decorative stained-glass windows and a glazed quatrefoil set within a stone roundel above. The north elevation's eastern end is occupied by the added vestry, featuring gables consistent with the chancel and a tall stone ashlar chimneystack. Both gables have square-headed window openings with cast-iron quarry-glass windows. A lean-to entrance porch with tongue-and-groove timber door is positioned to the east of the vestry. A brick screen wall and lean-to structure occupy the space to the west of the vestry.

The church occupies an elevated site accessed by an ascending gravel lane curving through the churchyard, which contains numerous stone and marble grave markers dating from the early nineteenth century onwards and a single stone box tomb. The entire site is enclosed by a rubble-stone wall with the lane opening through a pair of cast-iron gates set within curved stone walls with stone coping.

Historical records provide detailed documentation of the building's development. The first edition Ordnance Survey Map of 1833 shows the church, and by the third edition of 1906 the plan shows modifications to incorporate the chancel to the east and vestry to the north. Townland Valuation Records of 1828–40 describe the church as 45 feet 6 inches long by 27 feet broad by 16 feet high, with a tower and steeple measuring 13 feet by 10 feet and 27 feet 6 inches high. A vestry is noted in later pencilled annotations as 10 feet by 10 feet by 7 feet high. The church was valued at £7 16s 4d and the steeple at £1 12s 3d. In Griffith's Valuation the church valuation was noted as £7 0s 0d, later amended to £12 0s 0d, with valuations remaining consistent in subsequent Annual Revision Records. The land was recorded as belonging to Sir James M Strange, Baronet.

The interior was completed by the architectural firm Welland & Gillespie in 1863, noted particularly for new sittings work. R E Buchanan is associated with additions executed in 1916, likely including the chancel and vestry modifications. Architectural historian Alan Rowan described the church as a diminutive tower and hall type church set on a hillside in a pretty churchyard, dated to 1803.

The church retains its original architectural character alongside documented historical modifications. The additions in the mid-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries complement the earlier fabric in both scale and craftsmanship, demonstrating the building's evolution while maintaining integrity.