St. Malachy's Parish Church of Ireland, Main Street, Hillsborough, County Down, BT26 6AE

St. Malachy's Parish Church of Ireland

A free-standing cruciform Church of Ireland church built in 1774 on the foundations of an earlier church dating from 1636. The building is constructed of rubble and sandstone in the Gothick style and faces west. It comprises a cruciform plan with an entrance steeple to the west, chancel and gabled sanctuary to the east, and north and south transepts each abutted by a smaller three-stage tower.

The church is situated on an elevated site at considerable distance back from Main Street, approached by parallel driveways flanked by an entrance screen and gabled gate lodges. Rubblestone boundary walls enclose the grounds. A large cemetery lies to the north, accessed via a Lych gate adjacent to the north tower, with a driveway to the south connecting to Hillsborough Fort.

The exterior features pitched natural slate roofs with roll-moulded clay ridge tiles pierced by stone pinnacles to all gables. Lead valleys and lead-lined coping run along the rear sanctuary gable and gables abutting both transept towers. A deep moulded sandstone eaves cornice with cast-iron guttering supported on shaped iron brackets and cast-iron downpipes runs throughout. The walls are of random rubblestone with a low rubble plinth course (possibly from the earlier church) and lime pointing. Sandstone ashlar weathered and pinnacled lateral buttresses flank all gables. Window openings are equilateral-headed with sandstone surrounds and sandstone Y-tracery containing leaded glazing.

The steeple comprises a square-plan three-stage rubblestone tower with sandstone ashlar diagonal buttresses, weathered to each stage with continuous moulding to all sides. The tower is surmounted by a sandstone frieze enriched with shields and rosettes and a continuous cornice above a quatrefoil-pierced parapet. The buttresses rise above the parapet wall as gableted piers and tapered pinnacles. An octagonal-plan sandstone ashlar spire with annular mouldings and trefoil openings to four sides crowns the tower. The spire has three stages of diminutive lucarnes to four sides with trefoil openings and is topped by a copper ball finial and gilded weather vane.

The upper stage of the tower contains equilateral-headed openings to all four sides on a continuous sill course with perpendicular stone tracery and timber louvers to the bell-chamber. A further continuous moulding is interrupted to three sides by an ogee-arched moulding containing a replacement clock-face to the west with elaborate carved sandstone square panel below showing the Hill family crest and inscribed '1636, Per Deum Et Ferrum Obtinui'. The middle stage of the tower contains equilateral-headed window openings to three sides with three cusped lights to each containing leaded glazing and resting on a continuous sill course. Below the front elevation opening is a further carved square panel bearing the Downshire family crest and inscribed '1774, Per Deum Et Ferrum Obtinui'.

The lower stage features an equilateral-headed compound sandstone door opening with clustered colonettes on octagonal plinth blocks and double-leaf timber doors having iron studs, iron door furniture and bulls-eye glazing to four panels each. A further arched door opening to the south elevation was inserted in 1994 with deeply moulded sandstone surround and studded panelled timber door. The tower is connected to the nave by a lower, narrower linking section containing the gallery and baptistry, having a single lancet opening to either side and a quatrefoil opening above.

The north nave elevation is abutted by a gabled north transept, one window deep, with three windows to the right and a further window to the left. The transept is abutted by a three-stage square-plan north tower of rubble with continuous moulding to each stage and quatrefoil panels to the upper stage. Equilateral-headed openings to the middle and lower stages contain stone Y-tracery, while lancet openings to both side elevations are glazed with leaded lights. Below the lower stage is a four-centred arched opening with plain stone surround and steel panelled door giving access to a crypt. To the east elevation of the transept is a further slender door opening with a flight of stone steps.

The gabled east chancel elevation is abutted by a shallow gabled sanctuary with diagonal pinnacled buttresses, a pinnacle to the apex, and a tall equilateral-headed east window containing stone perpendicular tracery and leaded lights. A blind quatrefoil panel appears in the gable, with blind lancets to either side elevation.

The south nave elevation is abutted by a gabled south transept and south tower, matching the north nave elevation in arrangement. The south tower is accessed by a door opening inserted in 1994.