Sandholes Presbyterian Church, 8 Kiltyclogher Road, Cookstown, BT80 9AU

Sandholes Presbyterian Church is a T-plan slated and gabled building standing in a small rural village, set back from the public road within its own grounds. It originated in 1794–8 as a simple rectangular barn-form structure running parallel with the main road, built under the direction of Reverend Thomas Dickson, who served as minister here from 1787 until his death in 1816. A datestone on the building records this origin, inscribed "This Meeting House Was Built by the Congregation of Sandholes in the Year 1794. Revd. Tho. Dickson." The building was enlarged into its present T-shape in 1861 by the addition of a gabled projection at the front, and the church's exterior has since been given a naïve classicising treatment through the application of long-and-short rendered surrounds to the door and window openings.

The main entrance faces east. The east elevation presents a forward-projecting entrance gable, with the walls of the main lateral block set back to each side. Walls throughout are finished in pebble-dash, with stone quoins at the extremities of the entrance gable, a smooth rendered plinth, and window dressings formed in a kind of long-and-short work executed in smooth render. Roofs are laid in Bangor blue slates in regular courses, with timber barge boards and fascias; rainwater goods are uPVC.

The entrance gable contains two rectangular windows, one to each side of the central doorway, glazed with decorative leaded lights and fitted with projecting stone sills. The main entrance is formed by a pair of rectangular timber panelled double doors with a panelled tympanum over, set within incised panelled smooth rendered pilasters and with a rendered keystone block dressing to the head. The doorway is approached by a flight of three concrete steps, with later tubular metal handrails fixed to the front wall on each side. Above the doorway is an ocular window in a moulded sandstone surround, containing a star-shaped glazing pattern but blocked up on the inside with brickwork. The side walls of the front projection each contain a larger rectangular window with decorative leaded glazing towards the rear, and a narrow blind window opening near the front, the latter blocked with pebble-dash.

The front walls of the main lateral block have quoins of smooth cement render and each contains a large rectangular window filled with simple tinted leaded glazing. The southern of these walls also contains the recessed datestone described above, set in a rectangular moulded sandstone surround.

The south elevation of the lateral block has similar walling but adds a moulded rendered stringcourse linking the window heads, and vertical strips of smooth render at the extremities. Three windows are set into this elevation: two rectangular ones flanking a central Gothic arched one, all containing simple tinted leaded glazing with plain raised rendered surrounds.

The west, or rear, elevation consists of the long wall of the lateral block under an unbroken roofline, with a gabled projection at the left-hand extremity and a lean-to projection in the centre. One large rectangular window glazed as on the south elevation sits in the main wall to the right, and a similar window appears in the main wall between the two later projections. The lean-to projection has roughcast walls and contains rectangular windows in each wall, glazed with either small-paned metal frames or uPVC framed fixed lights and opening vents; a doorway on its south side contains a modern glazed and panelled rectangular door. The gabled projection has partly pebble-dashed and partly smooth rendered walls, blind on the south and west sides, but on its north side contains a small timber window with small panes set in a simple smooth rendered surround, and two doorways fitted with rectangular timber sheeted doors. This gabled projection serves as the heating chamber.

The north elevation of the lateral block is similar to the south elevation, except that there is no stringcourse linking the three windows.

The church's history of alterations is well documented. Buttresses were built to support the rear wall in 1885. A significant renovation took place in 1931, which included inserting the stained glass windows, installing a new ceiling, and fitting new pews and a pulpit brought from what is now Derryloran Parish Church Hall in Cookstown — formerly the 2nd Presbyterian Church in Cookstown, whose congregation had merged with that of Molesworth Street in 1928. In 1954 the lower portions of some interior walls were lined with brown tiles. In 1959 an organ was installed in the first-floor room above the vestibule, which had previously served as the session room, and a new session room and choir room were added to the rear. In 1978 a new roof structure was inserted to address sagging in the original. Early 20th-century photographs show the church previously whitewashed with plain surrounds to the openings; the current pebble-dash finish and raised rendered surrounds were probably applied during the 1931 renovation, at the same time as the leaded lights and stained glass were inserted, though the precise date is not recorded.

The setting is an important part of the listing. The church is approached from an original main gateway via a tarmac path aligned with the main entrance, and from the north through a large tarmac car park serving the modern church hall. The original main gateway comprises a pair of 19th-century ironwork gates set between octagonal chamfered stone posts, recessed slightly behind curving screen walls finished in roughcast with broad weathered sandstone copings; these copings continue as the front boundary walling to each side, carried on at the north end by lower rubble stone walls with large stone copings that bound the car park. The front boundary wall and main gateway were built in 1885. On either side of the tarmac driveway are lawns with some planting. To the rear of the church lies a graveyard, with a line of very mature tall trees marking its southern boundary. To the south-east of the church stands a low-eaved corrugated metal-roofed store with whitewashed walls, its ground floor or basement sitting at a lower level in the yard of the former church schoolhouse to the east. Modern timber palisading now divides the school ground from the churchyard. The manse stands well to the north of the modern church hall; it was built around 1862, is retained in church ownership, and is let to private residents. The schoolhouse next to the front gateway was built in 1871–2, and the church hall immediately to the north of the church was built in 1962.