St Patrick's Church of Ireland, 6 Wellbrook Road, Kildress, Cookstown, BT80 9RY

St Patrick's Church of Ireland is an early 19th-century church built of sandstone in a Gothic Revival style. Completed in 1818 at a cost of £1,600, which was funded by the Board of First Fruits, the building was consecrated on 4 September 1822. The decision to construct the church on this site was made in 1813. No architect's name has been recorded, though local tradition suggests that the elaborate ceiling plasterwork was designed by John Nash, who was working on Derryloran Parish Church in Cookstown and Lissan Rectory during the same period.

The church is of hall-and-tower type, consisting of a three-bay nave and short chancel, with a three-stage square tower set at the west end. All elements feature Perpendicular Gothic tracery to the windows. The walls are of regular coursed sandstone rubble with raised quoins and smooth sandstone dressings to openings, and a small projecting plinth. The nave and chancel have gabled roofs of Bangor blue slates in regular courses, with timber barge boards and cast iron rainwater goods.

The main elevation faces south. The main entrance is located in the tower and comprises a rectangular ledged timber door with decorative ironwork hinges, surmounted by a blind tympanum of Gothic arched form containing intersecting Gothic tracery, set within a Gothic arched stop-chamfered stone surround with projecting drip moulding. Above the doorway is a projecting sandstone shield inscribed with the date 1818.

The nave is lit by three Gothic arched timber windows on its south elevation, each of three lights with Perpendicular Gothic tracery and metal framed lozenge-shaped glazing, all surmounted by moulded labels. The south elevation of the chancel is blank. The tower has had its stonework cleaned except for the crenellations, corner pinnacles, and moulded cornice above the topmost storey. Tower stages are marked by plain projecting stringcourses.

The middle stage of the tower contains a narrow Saxon-style slit opening with a perforated timber board. The topmost stage contains timber louvre boards in timber Perpendicular tracery set in a Gothic arched surround with projecting drip moulding. The label stops are crudely carved stone heads of unusually naïve and primitive appearance, creating a series of highly unusual and idiosyncratically naïve carved head label stops that are notably distinctive. The west elevation of the tower contains a three-light traceried window similar to those of the nave, except for its small square glazing pattern, and a timber sheeted oculus in the middle storey set in a projecting moulded surround. There is a simple Gothic arched doorway in the west end containing a sheeted timber door, with a pair of semi-circular headed modern timber vent-lights on the north side.

A lean-to vestry is attached to the north side of the chancel, with similar roofing, rainwater goods, and walling to the main building. The window in the north side of the vestry is a rectangular timber sliding sash of two over two without horns, set in a partly blocked surround. A rectangular timber boarded door in the east end is set in a fully blocked surround. The east elevation of the chancel contains a large five-light window of Perpendicular Gothic type filled with stained glass, with a narrow Gothic lancet filled with brickwork in the apex above it. This window was made by Heaton, Butler and Bayne, retaining earlier tracery lights, and was installed after 1928.

The church exhibits an interior with unusually elaborate ceiling plasterwork, retaining most of its original character and detail intact. The building represents a well-proportioned example of its type and is notable both for the art-historical interest of its detailing and for its considerable local interest as a prominent landmark in a rural setting, as well as for its local social importance.

The building was repaired around 1837 with a grant of £151 from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. A modern toilet extension of lean-to form with slated roof and cement rendered walls has been added to the west elevation of the tower.

The church stands on an elevated site set well back from the public road within its own grounds in a very rural area. It is approached from the public road by a tarmac entrance driveway through a pair of original chamfered sandstone piers hung with decoratively treated iron gates, with a modern exit driveway with replicated gateway constructed alongside. The driveways are flanked by grass verges and trees and converge in an extensive tarmac car park which contains a modern church hall. Extensive lawns surround the church, and a driveway leads to an enclosed graveyard to the west entered by a set of gates and piers similar to the main entrance, with a rubble stone wall enclosing it. Mounted in the wall next to the graveyard entrance is a sandstone shield recording a dedication to the Countess of Castlestuart's father who died in 1864. The graveyard contains late 19th and 20th-century memorials, none of special artistic interest. To the east of the church is a large modern church hall of no architectural interest.