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

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

The building is planned on a T-form, facing south, with double-height lean-to aisles and transepts to the east and west, a triple-height gabled hall at the rear, and canted stair towers to the west elevation of the aisle and transept. A gabled porch and four-stage tower are positioned 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 church is constructed of random-coursed rock-faced basalt with sandstone dressing. Roofs are pitched natural slate with dressed basalt coping featuring crocketted apexes and roll-top red clay ridge tiles. Gutters are ogee-profile cast iron. The building is lit by five catslide dormers with painted timber tripartite cusped stained glass casements. Windows throughout are gothic stained glass casements with splayed sandstone reveals and flush sills.

The principal south gable is flanked by aisle elevations and abutted by the porch and tower to the left. The gable features a plinth, two splayed sandstone stringcourses, and a moulded sill-course at gallery level. The gallery is lit by a gothic sandstone Geometric-tracery stained glass casement with label-ended hoodmould over three stained glass lancets. The gable apex has a timber louvred oculus. The porch contains a gabled entrance to the left and tower to the right, with a niched sandstone apex, a gothic stained timber chevron-sheeted double-leaf door with wrought-iron hinged strapwork, and a carved sandstone tympanum over moulded corbels with splayed reveals and a multi-rebated archivolt with label-ended hoodmould.

The square-on-plan tower is detailed to match the principal gable. The first stage features a square-headed loop casement with splayed sandstone reveals and a diagonal buttress to the corner, with sandstone gargoyle ornaments. 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 between engaged colonettes supporting a hipped roof.

The west elevation is abutted entirely by the transept to the left and aisle to the right. The transept features an M-profile gable with a round-headed stained glass oculus in splayed sandstone reveals over windows, and is abutted by the hall stair tower entrance projecting under a spur. The aisle is detailed similarly to 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 mirrors the west elevation, except the transept is not abutted. The aisle is four windows wide, with a gable to the left end featuring a stained glass oculus at the apex and a gabled timber chevron-sheeted double-leaf door with hinged wrought-iron strapwork on the left cheek, topped by a stained glass trefoil.

The church demonstrates fine ornamentation and craftsmanship throughout. The interior includes banded columns reminiscent of Butterfield's work at St. Mark's Church of Ireland in Dundela, Belfast, and the clerestory dormers recall R. Norman Shaw's various Arts and Crafts churches. This is an assured late-Victorian Gothic composition with unusual detailing and exemplary proportions.

The church was built by the Colhoun Brothers of Londonderry, who also constructed other significant Omagh institutions including Sacred Heart RC Church, the former St. Lucia's Military Barracks, and the former Tyrone and Fermanagh Mental Hospital. Vincent Craig also reputedly designed a similar but smaller church in Castlederg, County Tyrone a few years prior. The church first appears on the 1905–6 Ordnance Survey map. It replaced a mid-eighteenth-century T-plan church that was later re-erected at the Folk Park in Cultra outside Belfast. This church was established after an earlier Presbyterian congregation, Trinity, broke away and erected their own single-cell structure in 1856.

The modern additions date from the 1970s and were designed by architect Kenneth Collins.