Mourne Presbyterian Church, Greencastle Street, Kilkeel, Newry, Co Down, BT34 4BH

Mourne Presbyterian Church is a barn church arranged on a T-plan, with a projecting entrance bay to the south. It is built in squared, coursed granite rubble with strap pointing throughout, and is detailed in a Tudor Gothic style. The roof is a natural slate T-shape, with lower hipped and pitched additions also in natural slate. Half-round metal rainwater goods are fitted throughout. Although the congregation dates back to 1696, and a first church was erected on the site in 1720, the present building was constructed in 1831, incorporating a datestone from its predecessor of 1756. The structure has been repeatedly altered and extended over the following century and a half — most substantially in 1887, 1933, and 1967 — to the point that its original character has been significantly compromised. It is not statutorily listed.

The south elevation faces the street and is gabled. The verge is moulded granite. At each corner stands a five-stage ashlar-dressed buttress. The first and second stages are separated by chamfered string courses; the third stage is gabled with Gothic panelling; the fourth stage is plain and projects above the main gable line; and the fifth stage broaches into an octagonal shaft, surmounted by a pinnacle with a foliated finial. A chamfered base course runs continuously around the building.

The main entrance is at ground-floor centre of the south elevation. Two ashlar granite steps with rounded nosings lead up to a pair of modern stained timber eight-panelled doors with a transom light of five leaded lancets. These are set within a two-order Tudor-headed arch with foliated spandrels and a label drip mould above, over which a small modern electric light is fitted. At first-floor level is a wide timber Tudor Gothic window comprising three cusped lower sections and an arcade of six cusped lancets above. Its reveal is ashlar-dressed and chamfered, with a canted sill and label mould. A chamfered string course runs across the wall just below first-floor sill level. In the apex of the gable is an ashlar granite block inscribed with the date 1933, with a hood mould above.

Turning the corner to the west, the side wall of the projecting entrance bay is abutted on the right by a canted bay with a canted hipped natural slate roof tied into the main roof. This side wall contains a tall, full-height semicircular-headed window with an inset timber frame of two leaded, cusp-headed lights. The end wall of the canted bay has a Tudor-headed opening with two similar but shorter timber lights. Projecting to the left is the exposed side wall of the nave — the underside of the left arm of the T-plan — which carries a tall semicircular-headed window matching that on the cheek of the entrance bay. The nave gable has a raised and coped verge and is abutted by a narrow two-storey return. The remaining exposed wall at ground-floor level contains a single semicircular-headed two-light window, with a similar but shorter window above it, and a small louvred timber vent in the gable over. The return abutting this gable has a pitched natural slate roof. Its right cheek (facing the street) is in unrendered squared random granite rubble and has a pair of modern stained timber panelled doors set within a Tudor-headed opening, in a projecting ashlar granite door case with carved spandrels, a label mould above, and a billet-moulded frieze to its narrow leaded roof. A large modern timber-framed leaded window with a pitched head and three vertical sections fills the gable, with a concrete sill. The left cheek of this return is blank. The end gable and left cheek have dashed rendered walls.

The rear elevation — the top of the T — is three bays wide and considerably altered by later additions. The exposed first-floor wall to the right is dashed and contains a single semicircular-headed two-light timber window. At ground-floor level below is a single-storey return with a flat leaded roof and a canted right corner. Its walls are dashed and it has a single modern window on the rear wall, and a similar window alongside a four-panelled timber door on the right cheek, reached by concrete steps. All these windows have concrete sills. To the centre of the rear elevation is a two-storey flat-roofed canted bay, its leaded roof level with the eaves of the main block. The walls are dashed, and each of the three main cheeks has a pair of tall narrow leaded windows with pointed heads sharing a common concrete sill. To the left of this bay is a tall plain extension rising above the main eaves, serving as a water tank. It has a flat roof, dashed and concrete-coped walls, and a canted corner at ground and first floors. A single two-light opening sits at ground-floor centre. Its left cheek is abutted by a single-storey flat-roofed return with dashed walls, a modern two-light window on the north wall, a blank east wall, and a door and window on the south wall.

The right gable of the nave — the right arm of the T — is raised and coped in squared random granite rubble and is abutted by a narrow two-storey return. The remaining wall to each side at ground floor has a single semicircular-headed two-light window, with matching windows above and a small louvred timber vent in the gable. The return has a pitched artificial slate roof. A large modern timber-framed leaded window with a pitched head and three vertical sections fills its dashed gable. The right cheek of the return is dashed and blank. Its left wall, facing the street, is in squared random rubble granite and has a pair of modern stained timber panelled doors within a Tudor-headed opening, with a projecting ashlar door case, carved spandrels, label mould, and a billet-moulded frieze to its narrow leaded roof, matching the arrangement on the opposite side of the complex.

Returning along the south-facing side wall of the nave — the underside of the right arm of the T — the wall is regularly coursed stone, as on the main façade, and incorporates a datestone reading 1989. It has a full-height semicircular-headed window with an inset timber frame of two lights, matching those on the left side. To the left, the right cheek of the projecting entrance bay carries two datestones reading 1831 and 1756, and is abutted to the left by a two-storey canted bay. The main wall to the right of this canted bay has a further full-height window detailed as previously described. The canted bay carries a datestone of 1887 on its right cant. Its front wall has a two-light window to each floor: the ground-floor window is rectangular and divided into two cusped lights, while the first-floor window has two similar cusped lights under a Tudor Gothic head.

The building has a long and well-documented history of alteration. The congregation was founded in 1696. The first church was built in 1720 in what is now the graveyard. In 1756 it was replaced by a larger building on the site of the present church, whose datestone is retained in the current fabric. The present structure was erected in 1831 as a simple rectangular barn church with entrances at each gable and a small vestry behind the pulpit at the middle of the rear wall, and its 1831 datestone is also retained. In 1886 the seating was renewed and a new front added to the gallery. In 1887 a two-storey neo-classical vestibule was added to the centre of the street elevation, recorded by a further datestone. In 1933 the vestry was dismantled to create a choir area at the rear of the church; new vestry and choir room accommodation was added to either side; and the 1887 vestibule was altered — widened, raised to the full height of the main block, and its classical entrance replaced with the current Tudor Gothic arrangement, as recorded by the 1933 datestone in the gable apex. In 1967 a £20,000 renovation scheme was completed under the direction of Benjamin Cowser, a Belfast architect born in Kilkeel who also designed the nearby church hall on Greencastle Street (1962) and the Vogue Cinema. The 1967 works included the dedication of six new stained-glass windows depicting the six days of creation — two in memory of Reverend Dr William McMordie, minister from 1886 to 1915, and two commemorating his successor Reverend Herbert Martin, minister from 1915 to 1955 — together with rebuilding of the side porches, a new solid block floor, electric heating, roof renewal, reconstruction of the side galleries, panelling of the choir gallery, a new front to the main galleries, and alterations to the vestibule, staircase, and choir room. A further datestone reading 1989 records a subsequent phase of works.

To the front of the church stands a war memorial, and to the rear is a graveyard with memorials dating from the late 18th century, including one commemorating Alexander McDowell, a revenue man murdered by smugglers in 1793. On the edge of the graveyard to the south-west of the façade stands a sundial. The front boundary to the street is enclosed by low modern metal railings with two matching sets of gates.