St. Malachy's Church (RC), Ballymoyer Road, Whitecross, Co Armagh., BT60 2LA

St Malachy's Church, Roman Catholic

St Malachy's Church is a five-bay early-Victorian Gothic hall-type Roman Catholic church built in 1835 to designs by an unknown architect. The building has painted rendered walling with granite dressings and is situated on a sloping site within private grounds set back from the north side of Ballymoyer Road. The church is orientated east-west with its principal elevation facing south towards the road.

The rectangular plan form includes a projecting confessional bay with canted sides to the centre of the rear north facade, a later projecting gabled porch attached to the south and south-west, and a projecting gabled vestry block to the north-east corner. The pitched roof is covered in natural slate with decorative angled terracotta clay ridge tiles featuring pierced trefoils; several courses of slate near the ridge are composed of smaller slates and are of a lighter colour. Raised verges to the east and west gables are topped with single granite crosses. The roof has flush eaves with a moulded cornice and painted granite corbels. Aluminium ogee guttering discharges to square-section uPVC downpipes.

The principal south-facing elevation consists of five bays with four-centred arch heads to four long windows. Each window has painted timber tracery composed of a pair of semi-circular-headed lights with a roundel above and leaded stained glass. Windows have raised stepped render surrounds with moulding to heads and jambs, and splayed dressed granite cills. Hood moulds above windows have decorative corbel stops. The first bay from the west is fronted by a projecting gabled side-entry porch with angle buttresses and smooth stepped granite dressings. The porch has a small pointed lancet window to the west, a decorative window to the south composed of a lancet with roundel above, a granite cill and impost course, and a recessed pointed arch doorway to the east side. The door has a hood mould with plain corbel stops and is a two-part pointed arch painted sheeted timber door with decorative iron hinges, opening onto two granite steps.

The west elevation faces a concrete footpath and consists of a gabled block with a granite cross to its apex. A louvered lancet opening is set to the gable, with a rose window featuring a six-petal flower design with raised render surround at first floor level, and a paired lancet window (former door) at ground floor level aligned below the rose window. The front porch is narrowly set back from the gable and connected to the south with a single pointed arch lancet.

The north elevation is the rear of the building, fronted by a later T-plan vestry block to the north-east and a concrete footpath. The main church has a confessional bay to the centre which narrowly projects with canted sides and single pointed lancets near the eaves, flanked by single long four-centred arch-headed windows with tracery similar to those of the front elevation. A concrete footpath extends to the north with a smooth rendered retaining wall above; higher ground and a rubble stone wall mark the north site boundary. The pitched roof vestry block projects north from the east side of the elevation with a narrowly projecting chimney breast (now reduced to a gable) at the gable, a lower gabled block extending to the east, and a further lower block extending to the west (outbuilding). The western block has a two-part painted sheeted timber door facing south towards the main church, and the eastern block has a top-opening timber casement window with modern galvanized metal security screen. The west elevation of the vestry block is partly fronted by an oil tank and has a double-hung sliding timber sash window with metal screen.

The east elevation faces a tarmaced path and the school playground and consists of a gabled block with a granite cross to its apex. The gabled block is blind except for a louvered lancet opening to the gable. A large rectangular slate datestone at ground floor level records: 'DOMUM TUAM. DOMINE DECET SANCTITUDO, Ps 92 V5, HOLINESS BECOMETH THY HOUSE O LORD, Ps 92 V5, THIS CHURCH DEDICATED TO ST MALACHY THE PATRON SAINT OF THE ARCHDIOCESS OF ARMAGH WAS ERECTED A.A. 1835'. The vestry block projects from the east side with a paired top-opening timber casement window and a concrete ramp leading to a door on its south-facing elevation: a four-panelled painted timber door with a three-part square-headed fanlight above. The vestry block has exposed painted timber rafter ends and a natural slate roof.

The church grounds are private and set back from the north side of Ballymoyer Road. The main vehicular entrance to the churchyard is flanked by dwarf walling with painted rough cast finish topped by decorative painted metal railings with some scrollwork panels, with painted metal gates hung on square-section painted rough cast cement-rendered pillars with finials. The gates are stamped 'G. Jones, Maker, York St. Belfast'. St Malachy's Primary School (rebuilt in 1906) is located to the east side of the decorative churchyard gates, which open onto a tarmaced drive leading up to the church. The drive leads straight from the gates with flanking areas of grass sloping down towards the gates. Two Victorian lamp standards flank the entrance, and three cross monuments are positioned next to the church. St Luke's Church of Ireland (HB16/20/005) and the former Church of Ireland building, now roofless (HB16/20/006), are located to the south side of Ballymoyer Road.