St Columbkille's Church, Main Street, Carrickmore, Omagh, Co. Tyrone, BT79 9AT

St Columbkille's is a detached, double-height Church of Ireland church built around 1790, funded by the Board of First Fruits and situated on an elevated site to the north side of Main Street, Carrickmore. The building was begun in 1786 following a gift of £500 from the Board of First Fruits (architect not recorded for the original structure), completed in 1792 by the Reverend Hugh Stewart, rector from 1791 to 1801, and consecrated on 5th September 1822. It stands as an early and well-proportioned example of its type, retaining much of its original character through fine stonework and a high level of craftsmanship throughout.

The plan is rectangular with a chancel to the east. Walls are uncoursed random rubble with droved-finish sandstone quoins. The roofs are pitched natural slate with blue-black clay ridge tiles, flat stone verges supported on cavetto-moulded kneelers, and a chimney at the east gable apex. Corbelled eaves carry replacement ogee-profile cast-metal rainwater goods. The windows throughout are geometric Y-tracery with lattice glazing and margin lights set within droved-finish stepped ashlar surrounds, except where noted otherwise.

The principal, west-facing elevation is dominated at its centre by a four-stage tower with spire, built around 1850 and completed in its present form in 1861. The first stage is roughcast rendered with diagonal buttresses and offsetting. Its north elevation has a gothic opening with a chamfered sandstone surround containing a square-headed timber-sheeted door with a fixed timber-sheeted panel above; the west elevation has a single tracery window; the south elevation is blank. The second stage, also roughcast rendered with blank north and south elevations, carries on its west face a shield plaque reading: "THIS TOWER WAS RESTORED / AND / SPIRE ERECTED THERON, / IN MEMORY OF / THE REVEREND / CHARLES COBBE BERESFORD. / BY HIS AFFECTIONATE CHILDREN / RELATIVES AND FRIENDS. / ANNO. DOMINI. / 1861." A separate inscription inside the church records that the tower was restored and the spire erected in 1861 in memory of the late Reverend C. C. Beresford, during whose incumbency of 43 years the Glebe House, Parochial School, and churches at Sixmilecross and Drumnakilly in the parish were built. The third, belfry stage has a central gothic timber-louvred belfry opening to each face within a chamfered sandstone surround. The fourth stage has a frieze of five blank gothic arches to each elevation. The tower terminates with a crenellated parapet and a fine ashlar needle spire.

The chancel to the east was built around 1860 and is detailed to match the nave. It is abutted against the slightly higher east gable of the nave. Its east elevation contains a tripartite stained glass chancel window with outer windows diminished, chamfered mullions, and a stepped chamfered surround with voussoirs above. A plaque below this window reads: "THE / BURIAL PLACE / OF THE / STEWART FAMILY / 1790." The church was built on land owned by Sir John M. Stewart Bt., and the east window and a nave window are both dedicated to members of the Stewart family. The left cheek of the chancel contains paired gothic windows; the right cheek is abutted by a single-storey lean-to vestry and store. According to Alistair Rowan, the Y-tracery windows in stone were added with the chancel by architect Joseph Welland.

The north elevation is abutted to the left by a single-storey lean-to vestry and store; the exposed section contains a central stained glass window. The south elevation contains three windows. The lean-to vestry and store, built around 1860, are detailed to match the main block; the corner buttress of the nave projects through the roof line and north wall, dividing the vestry from the store. The walls of these additions are roughly coursed random rubble with a splayed plinth and corbel table at eaves level. The vestry north elevation has a shoulder-chamfered door surround with a timber-sheeted door retaining its original ironmongery. The store, to the right of the vestry, has a central door detailed in the same manner with a small gothic opening to each side. The right cheek of the store is blank; the left cheek of the vestry contains paired gothic windows.

Internally, the church is well preserved and largely intact, with much carved timber detailing in the gallery and furniture, contributing significantly to its overall interest. A gallery was added in 1826.

The history of the building is well documented. The first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833 shows it as a simple rectangle captioned "Church." The Townland Valuation Records of 1828 to 1840 record the dimensions as 55 by 27 feet with a steeple forty feet high, and value the parish church, steeple, vestry room, and stable together at £17 16s 10d. Griffith's Valuation of 1856 to 1864 values the church, sexton's house, and graveyard at £19 0s 0d, with no significant changes recorded in the Annual Revisions from 1860 to 1929. A bell was purchased in 1814 at a cost of £22 15s, and in the following year the church was repaired at a cost of £100 10s 7½d. The chancel and vestry were built in 1861 with assistance from a grant from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. By 1892 the sexton's house had apparently been demolished and was deleted from the Valuation Revisions, reducing the overall value to £18. Extensive repairs were carried out in 1965 at a cost of £850, and the church was also renovated in 2001. The background to the church's construction is notable: in 1786 the Select Vestry Meeting opposed a proposed merger into a new chapel of ease at Sixmilecross, declaring it "very inconvenient to the people of the Parish in regard of situation," and resolving not to attend or repair it. This opposition directly led to the building of the present parish church.

The church sits within a churchyard on an elevated site. The boundary to Main Street at the south is formed by a random rubble wall with segmental coping. The entrance is through square, roughly coursed rubble piers with precast concrete square pyramidal caps supporting original wrought-iron gates. A replacement sexton's house is located to the west of the entrance and is of no architectural interest.