St Patrick's Roman Catholic Church, 15 Chapel Lane, Gortin, Co Tyrone, BT79 8ND

St Patrick's Roman Catholic Church

St Patrick's Roman Catholic Church is a detached double-height Gothic Revival church built in 1898, located on the east side of Chapel Lane in Gortin. The church is cruciform in plan, with a central nave, north and south transepts, and a canted chancel to the east flanked by double-height gable returns. A single-storey lean-to porch projects from the south at the re-entrant angle with the transept. A square tower rises to the north-west, and a single-storey sacristy adjoins to the north-east.

The roofs are pitched natural slate with clay crested ridge tiles over corbelled sandstone eaves courses. Raised stone verges feature gablets on moulded kneelers, and openwork stone cross finials crown the gables. The sacristy has a hipped natural slate roof. The walls are constructed of squared-and-snecked rock-faced rubble with sandstone quoins rising from a projecting plinth. Angle buttresses with offsets provide structural support.

The windows throughout are cusped gothic designs containing leaded stained glass, set in stepped sandstone surrounds with rubble voussoirs beneath hood moulding featuring carved stops.

The principal west-facing gable contains a central single-storey projecting gabled entrance, flanked by square piers with cross gable coping and cross finials. The entrance comprises replacement double-leaf vertically sheeted timber doors in a gothic double rebated surround with colonnettes. A carved sandstone spandrel panel above is inscribed 'ECCE SALVADOR MUNDI'. A moulded cornice with diapering rises to the apex. The entrance is flanked either side by single gothic windows.

A string-course carved with a gothic-headed colonnade marks the upper level. The principal feature is a central rose window set in a round-arched-headed double rebated ashlar sandstone recessed bay, surmounted by hood moulding with carved stops. A trefoil opening occupies the apex, carved similarly. A buttress to the right is topped by a square finial containing gothic apertures supported by columns on each elevation.

The three-stage tower adjoins the principal gable to the left. The first stage contains a granite datestone surmounted by a gothic window, with single windows to north and east. A moulded string-course marks the second stage, which features a cusped gothic niche holding a statue of St Patrick on a corbelled bracket, surmounted by a gabled hood moulding with crockets and finial. A pair of quatrefoil windows sits above, with a pair of windows to the north and single window to the east. A moulded string-course separates the ashlar bell stage, which has a pair of chamfered gothic louvred openings on each elevation. The tower terminates in a broached octagonal spire.

The north elevation features a two-window-wide nave at centre, abutted on the right by the tower and on the left by a gabled transept. The transept contains two pairs of plate tracery windows with a rose window surmounted by hood mould at the centre, and a trefoil to the apex. At ground floor level, the lean-to porch projection to the west contains three quatrefoil windows.

The sacristy to the north-east contains two square-headed windows with leaded stained glass. A chamfered sandstone shouldered entrance opening with a replacement square-headed vertically sheeted timber door sits to the west, flanked on the right by a further square-headed window. Two square-headed windows occupy the east elevation.

The east elevation consists of a canted chancel at centre with pairs of gothic windows to the left and right cheeks, sharing rubble voussoirs without hood mouldings. A round-arched-headed ashlar sandstone recessed bay with hood moulding contains a rose window to the east. The chancel is abutted left and right by gabled returns, each containing pairs of windows as described.

The south elevation comprises a three-window-wide nave to the left. The third window from the left is abutted at ground floor by the single-storey porch with a shouldered entrance containing a replacement vertically sheeted timber door, and a single square-headed window to the west. A gabled transept adjoins to the right, detailed as the north elevation.

The church is set within a churchyard with a car park to the west. Memorial stones to the south mark the graves of previous parish priests. The site is bounded to the road at west by rubble walling with concrete saddleback coping, with access through a pair of square sandstone piers topped with pyramidal coping. A rubble boundary wall runs to the south, while hedging and rubble walling to the north mark the boundary with the parochial house. Access to the north is through a pair of sandstone piers supporting a wrought-iron gate. A recent hall built circa 2007 stands to the north-east. The graveyard lies to the north of Chapel Lane.

The rainwater goods are cast-iron.