Desertcreat Parish Church, 6 Desertcreat Road, Tullyhogue, Cookstown, Co Tyrone, BT80 9UH

Desertcreat Parish Church is a Church of Ireland parish church of largely Victorian appearance, standing in a slightly raised position within its own churchyard in rolling rural countryside. Although the building reputedly dates from the early 17th century — it was described as "in building" in 1622 and as "a very ancient edifice" in 1837 — its present character reflects extensive interior and exterior alterations and additions carried out in 1880–81 by James Fullerton, Diocesan Architect. Despite this Victorian overlay, some of the field-stone masonry and the general proportions of the nave may survive from the original 17th-century structure, evidenced by a slight batter and uneven plane to part of the nave walling and by boulder masonry visible in parts of the walls. A tombstone to Alexander Sanderson, who died on 8 December 1633, is now built into the east wall of the interior, having originally been laid on the floor of the church, providing further confirmation of the early 17th-century origins of the main body of the building.

The church is a plain, gabled and slated rubble stone structure with sandstone dressings, comprising a rectangular three-bay nave, a small vestry projecting from the south side at the east end, and a later flat-roofed porch added to the west end. The style is Gothic Revival and the overall appearance is Early Victorian, except for an earlier western bellcote of simple classical form. The roof is covered in Bangor blue slates laid in regular courses between dressed sandstone copings rising from shaped kneelers. Rainwater goods consist of moulded lightweight metal gutters with plain circular downpipes at each end, fitted with original moulded cast-iron hoppers.

The walling throughout is of sandstone rubble, partly roughly squared and roughly coursed, and partly of boulders with a partly uneven surface, with a slight batter below cill height to the left-hand end of the main elevation. The quoins at the extremities are roughly squared.

The main entrance elevation faces south and contains three pairs of coupled Gothic-arched lancets glazed with metal lozenge-shaped panes, set in irregular block sandstone surrounds with deep splayed cills. Extending to the right is the lower, later porch, built of rubble sandstone with modern reticulated pointing. This contains the Gothic-arched main entrance, which incorporates a re-used keystone inscribed "RD 1735", taken not from a predecessor building on this site but from the remains of the inauguration stone of the Kings of Ulster. That stone had been broken up by Lord Deputy Mountjoy in 1602 and subsequently used by the Rector Richard Dobbs — rector from 1731 to 1745 — in building his rectory yard, before being removed at a later date and built into the church doorway. The entrance is fitted with double timber doors with decorative ironwork hinges, latch, and escutcheon. The porch roof is flat with a timber fascia, and three modern Gothic-arched lancets with projecting surrounds and leaded glazing are set in its west face; two modern metal flue pipes project from the roof. Windows in the porch are of cast-iron diamond pattern.

The east gable of the nave is of similar walling, mostly with modern reticulated pointing, and is lit by a centrally placed triplet of Gothic-arched lancets similar to those of the entrance front but with the addition of margin lights. The north or rear elevation is of similar character to the south elevation. At the east end it has a lower gabled vestry projecting from it, built of sandstone rubble with a tall dressed stone chimney on the gable. The vestry roof is slated to match the nave, with timber barge boards and exposed rafter ends at the eaves; the rainwater goods are as elsewhere except for a modern lightweight metal downpipe of oblong section. In the east side of the vestry is a pair of rectangular windows of leaded glazing set in coupled Gothic-arched heads. The doorway in the west side of the vestry is set in a chamfered shouldered opening with a lintel inscribed with the date 1881; the single door is diagonally boarded with ironmongery matching that of the main entrance.

The west gable has similar walling to the east gable and is largely covered by the later porch. Above the porch, the gable contains a smaller triplet of Gothic-arched windows. Above this triplet is a small single lancet, placed slightly off-centre, with a round head formed from a single stone and containing timber louvres. The gable is surmounted by a triangular pedimented bellcote in ashlar sandstone, its segmental-arched opening containing a bell.

The church has a good and unspoiled interior. Furnishings include new pewing, a pulpit, and reading desk designed by James Fullerton as part of the 1880–81 works. Subsequent additions include a new holy table introduced in the 1930s, communion rails erected in 1937, and a pulpit, reading desk, and lectern installed in 1939. The reredos, of Celtic design, was carved and presented by Thomas McGregor Greer of Tullylagan; it was made from bog oak excavated in the townland of Annahavil within the parish and was dedicated on 7 February 1936. The tombstone to Alexander Sanderson (died 8 December 1633) is built into the east wall of the interior.

The history of recorded alterations to the building before the 1880–81 works includes: repair of the roof in 1748; mending of the seat above the pulpit in 1754; alteration of the form of the chancel in 1788; puttying of the outside of the windows in 1810; and whitewashing of the interior in 1816. The major 1880–81 renovation appears to have swept away most or all of this earlier fabric.

The churchyard is approached from the main road by a tarmac driveway passing through a set of Victorian gates and piers, leading on to smaller concrete and tarmac paths around the church. The churchyard is largely grassed, bounded by a rubble stone wall, and contains mature trees and a variety of 18th-, 19th-, and 20th-century memorials of no special architectural or historic interest. Also within the churchyard are two prominent mausolea and an 18th-century stone slab known as the Bard's Grave. Adjacent to the main gateway stands a 20th-century Nissen hut with a rectangular entrance frontispiece of rustic brickwork. Along the north-east boundary is a one-and-two-storey gabled and slated sexton's house in rubble stone, of no special interest; adjacent to it is a modern gabled brick and roughcast church hall in a tarmac car park. The sexton's house and the original gateway were also designed by James Fullerton as part of the 1880–81 works and were completed by 1881.

The main gateway comprises a pair of dressed sandstone square piers in Gothic Revival style with stop-chamfered corners, surmounted by gabled and weathered caps containing sunken trefoil panels to front and rear, and hung with a pair of wrought-iron gates of Gothic cusped and scrolling design.