St Mary's RC Church, Castlewellan Rd, Cabra, Newry, Co Down, BT34 5RA

St Mary's RC Church, Castlewellan Road, Cabra, Newry

St Mary's is a medium-sized cruciform plan church set within a graveyard on the north side of Castlewellan Road. The building is constructed of unpainted lined cement render over granite rubble, with all dressings in punched granite blockwork. It has a pitched natural slate roof with terracotta ridges and leaded valleys, modern flush ventilators on the north side, and modern profiled metal gutters on plain corbels with cast iron circular section downpipes.

Each corner of the building features a broad clasping buttress on a chamfered plinth that tapers flush into the wall at three-quarter height. Each gable displays a moulded granite kneeler with raised granite skews and a decorative gable over the kneeler, all lead flashed. All window openings are lancets with cusped heads, splayed reveals and canted flush cills, all granite dressed.

The west gable contains the main entrance at ground floor centre, reached by a single granite step. A pair of modern stained timber doors with modern black iron handles fills a Gothic opening, set within a Gothic headed doorcase with chamfered reveal and moulded hood on cube stops from arch spring level. Two modern light fittings are mounted on the wall above the door. Above the entrance are three window openings; the centre one is taller and positioned slightly higher. All three are inset with modern rectangular quarry glazing with blue margins. In the gable apex is a small shamrock-shaped vent within a circular granite panel.

Rising from the west gable is a large granite bellcote built in squared unrendered granite. Its sides instep in three pitched stages before rising vertically with chamfered corners to a gabled, leaded granite roof terminated by a decorative granite cross. The bellcote is pierced by a trefoil-headed opening from which hangs the church bell, suspended from plain granite corbels.

The south wall of the nave contains four window openings. The three leftmost windows are modern with yellow glass rectangular quarries and red and blue margins, inset with red and blue Celtic crosses. The fourth window to the right has cast iron diamond glazing with margin panes.

The south transept advances to the right. Its gable has a central entrance consisting of a pair of modern sheeted timber doors within a shouldered arched doorway and Gothic doorcase. The shouldered head is decorated; the doorcase is similar to the west entrance except the arch head is infilled with a plain tympanum panel. Modern light fittings are mounted on this panel and over the door. The gable above contains three windows with yellow glass rectangular quarries and blue margins; the central window is inset with a lozenge panel emblazoned with the sacred heart pierced from above by a sword. A small trefoil vent sits in a circular panel in the apex, with a decorative cross finial above. The west cheek of the south transept has two windows with cast iron framed diamond quarries. The east cheek also has two windows, both containing figurative stained glass.

The east end gable of the main church contains the sanctuary, an extension of the nave. Its narrow south cheek, advancing to the east side of the south transept, has a single stained glass window with a higher cill than those on the nave and transepts. The east gable is abutted by a single-storey sacristy. The wall above the sacristy has three stained glass windows clustered together, as those on the west end but with decorative hoods on moulded brackets. A trefoil vent sits in the apex with a cross finial.

The sacristy is single storey with a basement. It has a pitched natural slate roof with modern flush vents on each pitch. Rainwater goods and walls are constructed and detailed similarly to the main block. The sacristy's south elevation features a modern door at basement level accessed by concrete steps enclosed by plain modern wrought iron railing and matching gate. At ground floor is a pair of small rectangular cast iron casements with diamond quarries within a single opening. The east gable has two similarly detailed narrow lancet windows. The north elevation is blank and abutted by a porch which links it to the east gable of the main block. This porch has a lean-to natural slate roof against the east gable, which ties into the north pitch of the sacristy roof at a lower ridge. Three steps on its east cheek rise to a modern sheeted timber porch door at eaves level. The north wall has a pair of rectangular cast iron framed casements.

The north cheek of the sanctuary has a single stained glass window as on the south cheek. Advancing to its right is the north transept, which is identical to the south transept with the following exceptions: all windows are cast iron framed with diamond quarries except those on the east cheek, which are figurative stained glass. A modern disabled access ramp with squared uncoursed granite walling, chamfered plinth and tubular metal handrail abuts the north entrance.

The north wall of the nave has four window openings. The leftmost window is a figurative painted glass window; the remaining three are modern with yellow glass rectangular quarries and red and blue margins, inset with red and blue Celtic crosses.

The area immediately around the church is paved in tarmac. The boundary with the road is enclosed by a cement rendered dwarf wall with overhanging granite coping, above which are decorative wrought iron railings with foliated cast iron spearheads, all mounted on cast iron ball cushions. The main gates, positioned at the centre of this boundary and set into a concave recess, are detailed as the railings and bear the maker's stamp "B. Lindsay". They hang on broad ashlar granite posts with chamfered plinths and moulded overhanging pyramidal caps. The base of the left plinth is incised with an Ordnance Survey benchmark. At the extreme left of the boundary is a two-storey pebble-dashed outbuilding with a small plain pedestrian gate, and at the extreme right is a pair of vehicle gates detailed as the main ones. Through the main gates runs a path and two flights of granite steps rising to the south door of the church. The area to either side of the steps is lawned; to the right stands the Gothic Revival McMullan mausoleum, dated circa 1841–42. To the north and west of the church is the graveyard with a retaining wall where it approaches the west end. It contains an assortment of memorials, the earliest dating from the 1830s–40s in roughly dressed granite or slate, often decorated with naïve angels. To the east is a plain parish house of circa 1900 with bay windows and plastic double-glazed windows, behind which are a 1970s toilet block and car park.