St Patricks RC Church, Drumlough Road, Rathfriland, Newry, Co Down, BT34 5DW

St Patrick's Roman Catholic Church

This small rural cruciform church stands on the east side of Drumlough Road near Rathfriland, with a graveyard and former school to its rear.

The church was originally built as a rectangular chapel, shown on the 1834 Ordnance Survey map as a recently completed building capable of holding 300 people. According to the first valuation book, it measured 67 feet by 26 feet by 14 feet high. The footprint remained the same when recorded on the 1860 map, but the 1865 datestone above the entrance marks the addition of a new nave projecting towards the road.

The building is constructed with cement-dashed and painted walls beneath an artificial slate roof with coped skews, moulded granite kneelers and a granite finial cross to each gable. The slightly advanced rendered eaves course carries half-round metal rainwater goods.

The principal west-facing elevation centres on a Gothic-headed entrance door with splayed deep reveals and a painted moulded hood mould. The door comprises a pair of tongue-and-groove sheeted framed doors with a brass knob. Above the entrance is a finely dressed granite circular plaque with a quatrefoil inset and moulded hood mould, inscribed "Deo optima asuo invocatione St PATRICII MDCCCLXV". Flanking the entrance on both sides are narrow lancet windows with splayed granite cills and splayed reveals. The north and south cheeks of the nave each contain two similar lancets. The east-facing gable has three lancets arranged as those on the north and south sides.

The transept runs north to south, with advanced base courses to its walls. The north gable of the north transept contains three lancets, the central one taller than the others. The west elevation of the north transept is blank, with evidence of a Gothic-headed doorway now rendered over. The south transept has three lancets with granite cill to the gable, and its west elevation contains a modern pair of tongue-and-groove sheeted doors in a Gothic-headed opening with splayed reveals.

A single-storey lean-to sacristy abuts the south cheek of the east gable and wraps around to extend beyond the south transept gable. It has an artificial slate roof with boxed eaves board and half-round metal rainwater goods. Its east face contains a modern top-hung stained timber casement window with painted concrete cill. The south projecting cheek has a similar narrow window, and the west face contains a modern stained timber and glazed door with a matching side light.

The setting comprises a modern cement-rendered wall and galvanised metal railings to the road, enclosing a tarmac front and side yard. A modern cement-rendered retaining wall to the rear has steps up to the graveyard. Most memorials date from the late 19th century, though one with three crucifixes dates from 1840 (McGivern). Immediately to the southwest stands the former schoolhouse, a pitched natural slate roofed building with lined cement rendered walls and modern plastic windows. A wooden plaque on its northwest gable reads "Lurgancahone Primary School".