Derryloran Old Churchyard, corner of Sandholes Road and Drum Road, Cookstown, Co Tyrone is a Grade Record Only listed building in the Mid Ulster local planning authority area, Northern Ireland.
Derryloran Old Churchyard, corner of Sandholes Road and Drum Road, Cookstown, Co Tyrone
- WRENN ID
- bitter-keep-equinox
- Grade
- Record Only
- Local Planning Authority
- Mid Ulster
- Country
- Northern Ireland
- Source
- NI Environment Agency listing
Description
Derryloran Old Churchyard is a walled graveyard containing the ruins of a 17th-century church, several family vaults, and memorial slabs dating from the 17th to 19th centuries. It occupies a corner site on the south-western outskirts of Cookstown where Sandholes Road and Drum Road meet, overlooking the Ballinderry River.
The church ruin is a rectangular structure aligned east to west, built of rubble stonework with roughly shaped quoins. It comprises two gables and two long side walls, now roofless. The west gable rises to the base of a bellcote at the apex and has shaped kneelers at each extremity. The entrance is in the west gable through a projecting gabled porch containing a Gothic arched doorway made of two large chamfered arched stones, with two low stone bench seats set along the interior side walls. Behind this later porch lies the original entrance in the centre of the gable, a plain semi-circular arched opening. A central rectangular window with a timber lintel is inserted above. The north elevation contains one featureless window opening without a head. Near the west end of the north wall a large roughly rounded stone projects, whose function is uncertain but may relate to an earlier porch connected with a now blocked doorway. The east gable has shaped kneelers at the extremities; the south corner kneeler is embellished with a carved entrelac motif. A tall three-light window occupies the gable, finely executed in Perpendicular Gothic style with three round-headed lancets surmounted by Y-tracery set in a Gothic arched opening with a Gothic arched drip moulding. Some of this traceried window is replacement work carried out in 1988. The south elevation contains four rectangular window openings; the two at the west end have flat arched heads probably dating from the 18th century, while the two at the east end have projecting square drip mouldings. Throughout the south, east, and north walls are portions of incised or moulded stonework of medieval date, here reused at random.
The interior is laid with gravel and contains a Von Steiglitz family vault in the south-east corner and a number of memorial slabs. The Von Steiglitz vault is a gabled rectangular stone structure, smooth cement rendered, lined and blocked. Its roof consists of overlapping stone slabs, later smooth rendered. The front gable bears a cusped arched inscription panel in the main wall and a carved sandstone armorial panel in the pediment above, commemorating Henry Lewis Von Steiglitz who died in 1824 and other family members. In front of the vault is a flat stone slab inscribed to Walter Lecky who died in 1694, reputedly the earliest recorded memorial in the graveyard.
Built against the outside of the church near the east end of the north wall is the vault of the Stewarts of Killymoon. This is a rectangular structure comprising a pedimented central block flanked by lower parapet-walled wings. The central block has a front of ashlar sandstone with projecting pilasters at the extremities bearing crudely carved capitals, a moulded cornice, and a moulded triangular pediment. The pediment contains an eroded inscribed plaque recording erection in 1680 and repair in what appears to be 1840, though 1848 or 1849 is also possible. Below is a recessed rectangular panel inscribed 'Stewart of Killymoon', which bears the names of various family members interred here up to 1914. The wings are constructed of snecked sandstone with plain sandstone coping.
Other vaults include an unnamed mausoleum in the north-east corner of uncommon design for Northern Ireland, featuring curvilinear Dutch gables and probably dating from the early Victorian period, now in poor condition. The Adair vault stands in the south-west corner, a gabled structure of rockfaced sandstone with segmental-arched windows to the sides and a large segmental-arched entrance containing a gate-screen of wrought ironwork incorporating arrow-heads and stylised leafage. The same ironwork details appear in the window openings. Inside, the rear wall bears plaques recording deaths of various Adair family members of Greenvale, Cookstown. This vault stylistically dates from the mid-to-late 19th century.
The boundary wall surrounding much of the graveyard is of rubble sandstone with rough stone copings. The entrance gateway in the west boundary is set on axis with the church entrance, positioned in a recess flanked by curved screen walls. It consists of a pair of iron gates set between tall square piers of regular coursed sandstone blocks with moulded plinths, cornices, ball finials, and shaped brackets to the inner faces. A flight of stone steps leads up to the gateway. To the right of the main gateway is a small stile.
The setting comprises a narrow grass verge around much of the front boundary wall, with overgrown hedges, scrub, and trees around the south and east boundaries. Beyond the northern boundary is the bank of the Ballinderry River containing mature trees. The ground within the graveyard is grassed and crossed by a few paths.
Detailed Attributes
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