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

St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church stands as a detached double-height rendered building on Knockmoyle Road in Gortin, built around 1860. The church is cruciform in plan and faces east, with a prominent three-stage stone entrance tower featuring a broached spire and iron cross. Single-storey additions include a vestry to the south, an entrance porch to the west, and a porch to the north.

The roof is pitched natural slate with terracotta ridge tiles and cement fractables to all gables, each surmounted by stone and iron crosses. An octagonal rendered chimneystack rises above the south gable at the altar. Ogee moulded cast-iron guttering runs to a blocked eaves course, with square-profile cast-iron downpipes fitted with trefoil brackets.

The walling is painted ruled and lined render with shallow diamond-faced rusticated render quoins to all corners and window surrounds. Windows throughout are predominantly gothic lancets with Y-tracery timber frames, leaded stained glazing, and concrete sills, though some replacements in uPVC appear to the vestry.

The east entrance elevation is dominated by the three-stage stone tower. Its base is squared rubble stone with slightly projecting tooled stone ashlar quoins and ashlar string courses defining each stage, set upon a chamfered ashlar plinth. The tower's third stage has gothic openings on all four sides with stone ashlar surrounds, stone sills, and timber louvers. The second stage features 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 second stage holds a painted stone statue of Mary on a stone base. The principal entrance comprises a four-centred arched door opening with chamfered stone ashlar surround, fitted with an original vertically-sheeted timber door decorated with iron furniture and an original timber tracery overlight. The broached spire is constructed of tooled stone ashlar, crowned with an iron cross and a moulded string course at its base.

The south elevation, facing the road, features a gabled projection with three lancets above a single-storey vestry extension with an M-profile roof. A diminutive pointed-arched vent with timber louvers sits above the central window, topped with a St. James's cross. The gabled projection's lancets have plain chamfered surrounds and weather glazing. The vestry itself has paired square-headed window openings to both side elevations and to the front right, with a square-headed door opening to the left. All vestry openings display shallow diamond-faced render quoins, concrete sills, and modern uPVC windows or a vertically-sheeted timber door.

The west elevation comprises an off-centre gabled projection surmounted by a stone cross with an indecipherable plaque below. To the left stands a single lancet window above a gabled entrance porch. The porch features vertically-sheeted timber doors on either side and a square-headed window with leaded coloured glazing. The main wall above the porch has a single gothic window opening with Y-tracery timber frame and leaded glazing with a replacement stone sill.

The north elevation mirrors the western arrangement with a central gabled projection surmounted by an iron cross, similar window and porch details to the west.

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