St Colman’s RC Church, Attical, Kilkeel, Newry, Co Down, BT34 4SY

St Colman's Roman Catholic Church is a modest Gothic style church completed in 1890 at Attical, near Kilkeel. The building was constructed under the direction of Reverend Marner, the parish priest, and first appears in the valuation records of 1891.

The church is oriented north-south with the altar positioned on the north wall. The main structure consists of a six-bay gabled nave with a hipped canted sanctuary. Attached to the north side is a four-bay aisle with gabled bays, while the south side features a central gabled entrance porch and a gabled baptistery at the west end. A flat-roofed sacristy of recent construction has been added to the rear at the north-east corner.

The roof is pitched with natural slate; the nave ridge is finished with red clay and a dogtooth cresting, while the north aisle has plain ridges. The gables are raised and coped in granite with bracketed and canted kneelers at the eaves. The east gable carries a cruciform stone finial at the ridge, and the west gable displays an ashlar granite gabled bellcote of similar style. A bell is rung by an external cable on the west wall. The sanctuary has lead hips and an iron cruciform finial. Eaves incorporate a projecting masonry course. Rainwater gutters and downpipes are seamless aluminium with an ogee profile and rectangular form respectively.

The walls have a battered base approximately 0.75 metres high and are finished with smooth plaster and ashlar lining. Gothic lancet windows with granite flush cills and stepped rendered dressings to the jambs with chamfered arrises are positioned either side of the entrance porch. Windows in the porch and baptistery have square granite heads and cills with stepped rendered jambs. The north aisle features similar Gothic headed lancets, a blind quatrefoil high in the west gable wall, and a confessional projecting from the centre two bays with a flat roof. Buttresses of strap-pointed ashlar granite with pitched caps and battered bases are set at right angles to the corners of the porch and baptistery, with one per bay centred between windows. A painted plaster crucifix is set into a blind arch in the baptistery gable. The entrance porch has a rounded Gothic headed arch containing diagonally sheeted double doors approached by five granite steps and a granite threshold. The west gable contains three tall Gothic lancets with plain render surrounds. All windows throughout are filled with stained and coloured glass quarries. The sanctuary walls parallel to the nave each contain a single Gothic headed lancet; otherwise the walls are blank.

The recent sacristy construction features a flat asphalt roof projecting over plain rendered walls, with modern rectangular top-hung timber casement windows fitted with galvanised security grills. The sacristy door is a modern flush timber type painted finish, accessed up four steps and enclosed by a low rendered wall.

The churchyard is enclosed by a low granite wall of squared quarry-faced rubble with concrete coping. On the north side, falling ground raises the outer plinth wall. Two gateways provide access: the principal gateway leading to the entrance porch has square ashlar granite piers rising three courses above the wall with stop-chamfered arrises and flush chamfered caps, and is hung with wrought iron gates with cast iron details. The second gateway features quarry-faced blocks with similar caps.

No building occupied this site according to the 1834 Ordnance Survey map. A school house appears on the 1859 edition, which according to the 1861 Valuation belonged to the Church Education Society but was removed from the valuation books by 1882. The present church was completed and first recorded in the 1891 Valuation entry, subsequently appearing on the 1901 Ordnance Survey map by which time Attical School had relocated a short distance to the south. Reverend Marner was also responsible for Star of the Sea School, opened in 1890.

The interior finishes and many decorative elements date from the mid and late twentieth century. The church is not considered to possess special architectural or historical interest warranting statutory protection.