Lowry Mausoleum, Desertcreat Parish Church Churchyard, Tullyhogue, Cookstown, Co Tyrone

The Lowry Mausoleum is a good and intact example of a late 18th-century mausoleum of modest scale built in simple Georgian classical style. Constructed between 1760 and 1779 to house the remains of Reverend James Lowry who died in 1787 and his descendants, it is of considerable local interest as the mausoleum of the Lowry family of Pomeroy and Rockdale.

The building is a single-storey structure with a slated gable roof and no windows. It stands in the south-east corner of Desertcreat Parish Church churchyard in a very rural locality, occupying a grassed area with a plinth-like strip of cement render along the base of each side wall and the remnants of a low plinth wall abutting the south-east corner. A short distance to the north-west stands another mausoleum, and a short distance further north stands Desertcreat Parish Church, with which the mausoleum forms part of an interesting architectural group.

The building is constructed of predominantly rubble masonry carefully embellished with cut stone dressings. The main north elevation, which faces the churchyard, is symmetrical and built of ashlar sandstone in regular courses with rusticated sandstone quoins to the extremities and projecting sandstone coping stones to the raking gables. A central doorway contains a rectangular timber sheeted door set in a rusticated surround. The doorway features an unusual rusticated lintel cut from a single stone but designed to give the appearance of a flat arch with stepped rusticated voussoirs. Above the doorway is a rectangular white marble panel set in a moulded sandstone surround, inscribed to the memory of Reverend James Lowry. Flanking the doorway on each side are a pair of smaller rectangular white marble panels recording the names of later members of the Lowry family. The gable above is of broken pediment type.

The side elevations are built of rubble masonry, roughly plastered with a projecting sandstone eaves course and rusticated sandstone quoins to the north end of each side. A small narrow ventilation slit is positioned in the centre of the east side. The roof is covered with Bangor blue slates in regular courses without rainwater goods. The rear or south gable is of rubble construction, roughly plastered, with gable copings to the front.