First Presbyterian Church, Dublin Road, Omagh, Co. Tyrone, BT78 1TT

First Presbyterian Church, Dublin Road, Omagh

A triple-height stone Gothic Presbyterian church built between 1895 and 1897 to designs by Vincent Craig, located on the north side of Dublin Road at a prominent bend on an elevated site. The building is set back from the road, bordered by a wall and railings, and surrounded by well-maintained mature landscaping.

The church is arranged on a T-plan, facing south, with double-height lean-to aisles and transepts to the east and west, a triple-height gabled hall to the rear of the church and transepts, canted stair towers to the west elevation of the aisle and transept, and a gabled porch with a four-stage tower to the south elevation of the aisle stair tower. A modern hall extension has been added to the east gable of the hall, and a modern double-height flat-roofed brick church hall with porch is connected to the north elevation of the hall extension via a linking block.

The roof is pitched natural slate with dressed basalt coping featuring crocketted apexes and roll-top red clay ridge tiles. Cast-iron gutters with ogee profiles light the church to both pitches through five catslide dormers with painted timber tripartite cusped stained glass casements. The walling is random-coursed rock-faced basalt with sandstone dressing, and buttresses with offsetting mark the corners.

Windows throughout are Gothic stained glass casements with splayed sandstone reveals and flush sills. The principal south gable is flanked by aisle elevations and is abutted by the porch and tower to its left end. This gable features a plinth, two splayed sandstone stringcourses, and a moulded sill-course at gallery level. The gallery is lit by a Gothic sandstone window with Geometric tracery and a label-ended hoodmould over three stained glass lancets. The gable apex contains a timber louvred oculus.

The porch has a gabled entrance to the left and the tower to the right. The gable features a niched sandstone apex and a Gothic stained timber chevron-sheeted double-leaf door with wrought-iron hinged strapwork. A carved sandstone tympanum sits over moulded corbels with splayed reveals and a multi-rebated archivolt, surmounted by a label-ended hoodmould. The right cheek of the porch is abutted by the tower, whilst the left cheek has a single square-headed stained glass casement.

The square-on-plan tower is detailed in keeping with the principal gable. Its first stage features a square-headed loop casement with splayed sandstone reveals, a diagonal buttress to the corner, and sandstone gargoyle ornaments to the left and at the sill-course left end. The second stage rises from square-on-plan to octagonal-on-plan with offset sandstone spurs and various loop casement windows on the second and third stages. The fourth belfry stage is dressed sandstone with square-headed loop apertures to each elevation between engaged colonettes supporting a hipped roof.

The west elevation is abutted entirely by the transept to the left and the aisle to the right. The transept has an M-profile gable and is abutted to the left by the hall stair tower entrance projecting under a spur. The exposed section of walling sits over a splayed sandstone plinth, with round-headed stained glass oculi in splayed sandstone reveals at the apexes, over a single window to the left and a bipartite window to the right. The left cheek is abutted entirely by the hall, and the right cheek is blank. The aisle is detailed as the transept with three bipartite windows separated by clamp buttresses with offsetting.

The rear north gable is abutted entirely by the hall. The east elevation is detailed as the west elevation, except the transept is not abutted. The aisle is four windows wide, and the left end has a gable with a stained glass oculus at the apex. The left cheek on the south elevation features a stained timber chevron-sheeted double-leaf door with hinged wrought-iron strapwork and splayed sandstone reveals with multi-rebated archivolts in a slight lean-to projection, with a stained glass trefoil with flush sandstone surrounds at the apex.