St. Mary's R.C. Church, Knockmoyle Road, Gortin, Omagh, Co. Tyrone, BT79 7TA

St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church is a detached, double-height rendered church built around 1860, located on Knockmoyle Road in Gortin, County Tyrone. The building faces east and is distinguished by a prominent three-stage stone entrance tower with a broached spire. It remains a good example of a small-scale rural Roman Catholic church, though recent alterations have somewhat compromised its character.

The church is cruciform in plan, with a single-storey vestry to the south, a single-storey entrance porch to the west and north, and a pitched natural slate roof with terracotta ridge tiles. Cement finials surmount all gables, topped with stone and iron crosses. An octagonal rendered chimneystack rises from the south gable above the altar. Ogee-moulded cast-iron guttering runs along blocked eaves courses, with square-profile cast-iron downpipes featuring trefoil brackets.

The external walls are painted and ruled with lined render, with shallow diamond-faced rusticated render quoins at all corners and window surrounds. Windows are predominantly gothic lancets with Y-tracery timber frames and leaded stained glazing, set on concrete sills. Some windows have been replaced with uPVC.

The three-stage stone entrance tower dominates the east elevation. It is constructed in squared rubble stone with slightly projecting tooled stone ashlar quoins and ashlar string courses defining each stage, resting on a chamfered ashlar plinth course. The broached spire is of tooled stone ashlar and is topped with an iron cross. The third stage features gothic openings on all four sides with stone ashlar surrounds, stone sills and timber louvers. The second stage contains gothic window openings to the east and north with replacement 9/12 timber sash windows incorporating Y-tracery to the upper sash. A round-headed niche on the south side of the tower contains a painted stone statue of Mary on a stone base, with a stone ashlar surround and sill. The principal door opening has a four-centred arch with chamfered stone ashlar surround. The original vertically-sheeted timber door retains decorative iron furniture and an original timber tracery overlight.

The south elevation, facing the road, consists of the gabled main body with three lancet windows above a single-storey vestry projection that has an M-profile roof with an iron cross to its apex. The gabled projection above the vestry bears three lancets with plain chamfered surrounds and weather glazing, together with a diminutive pointed-arched vent with timber louvres topped by a St. James's cross. The vestry has paired square-headed window openings to both side elevations and to the front, with shallow diamond-faced render quoins, concrete sills and uPVC windows. A vertically-sheeted timber door provides access.

The west elevation comprises an off-centre gabled projection topped with a stone cross and bearing an indecipherable plaque below. A single lancet window stands to the left, with a lancet vent opening to the gable. Below these sits a gothic window opening with Y-tracery timber frame and leaded glazing. A gabled entrance porch with vertically-sheeted timber doors to either side and a square-headed window with leaded coloured glazing is positioned below. The north elevation is similarly arranged with a central gabled projection topped by an iron cross and identical porch details.

The interior retains some original elements, notably a fine arch-braced coffered timber roof structure, though recent alterations have compromised the overall character.

Historical records indicate that a Roman Catholic chapel has occupied this site since at least the 1830s, appearing on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833. The second edition of 1854 shows a chancel added to the building, and by the third edition of 1905-6 it is captioned 'St Mary's RC Chapel'. Valuation records from 1858 (Griffith's Valuation) record the 'RC Chapel and Burial Ground' with a building valuation of £7. Townland Valuation records list the 'Roman Catholic Chapel and yard' as exempt, valued at £5 10s. Ordnance Survey memoirs note two catholic chapels in the parish of Cappagh: one at Killyclogher and another in Knockmoyle, north of the demesne. While evidence of a church on this site dates from the 1830s, stylistically only the east tower appears to belong to that period. The tower and hall structure resembles a Board of First Fruits church, with the exterior detailing of the nave and transepts suggesting a late nineteenth-century date, whilst the tower conforms to an early nineteenth-century style.

The church is set back from the road within its own grounds, with the south elevation facing Knockmoyle Road. It sits within a lawn with a bitumac driveway and path, enclosed by a low rendered wall to the south, west and north, featuring rendered piers and replacement steel gates providing vehicular and pedestrian access. A bitumac car park is located to the west, with a cemetery to the north. The cemetery contains numerous stone and marble grave-markers, including some unmarked stones, and fine stone box-tombs and table-tombs, dating from 1827 to the present.