Magheradroll C of I Parish Church, Church Road, Ballynahinch, Co Down

Magheradroll Church of Ireland Parish Church is an irregular, mainly single-storey gothic parish church built in three distinct phases. The tower and spire date from 1772, the nave was rebuilt in 1829, and it was extended in 1870 with three large gabled side bays. The building is situated awkwardly in a hollow close to the roadside, surrounded to the west and south by a graveyard, and located south of Ballynahinch town centre on the southwest side of Church Road.

The tower and original portion of the nave are finished in rough cast and display a simple Georgian gothic appearance, while the 1870 extension is constructed in dark rock-faced rubble and is distinctly Victorian in character. A single-storey lean-to extension on the west side may have been added around 1922.

The south elevation of the original nave features at its centre a panelled front door with a matching panelled wooden Tudor arch fanlight over, moulded dressings, and a moulded dripstone with label stops. Directly above is a stained glass pointed arch window with matching dressings and label stops. The gable has a stone parapet. To the right of this is the south side of the 1870 extension, which has a projecting porch with a steeply pitched hipped roof. The porch's south face contains a gothic arched door opening with a moulded surround, and the east face has a small square-headed window with leaded panes.

The east elevation is largely occupied by the 1870 extension, consisting of joined gables each with a large gothic window containing four lancets with reticulated tracery over. The windows and quoins are dressed with light coloured Portland stone. Between the roof pitches are two secret gutters, each with a cast iron rainwater hopper and downpipe attached to the outfall.

The north elevation has the north face of the 1870 extension to the right and the gable of the original nave to the left. At the centre of this gable is a panel tracery window with four lancet lights to the lower section. The gable is buttressed and has a parapet with stone copings.

The west elevation features the four-storey square tower of 1772 at its centre. To the right of the tower is a tall lancet window and, further right, a small hipped-roof single-storey extension. To the left of the tower is a lean-to single-storey projection, possibly added in the early twentieth century, whose west face contains a pointed arch doorway with a plain fanlight over a modern panelled door, reached by a short flight of steps.

The tower's west face at ground level contains a Tudor arch-headed door opening with a plain fanlight over a modern panelled door, set at the head of a short flight of stairs and covered by a gallows bracket canopy. The ground floor south face of the tower is blank, while the north and east faces are built against the vestry and nave. The upper faces of the tower are identical, with each of the four floors slightly set back and featuring a projecting horizontal stone string course. The first floor has a small Y-tracery window. On each face of the second floor is a small decorative opening containing a blank slate panel. The third floor has a small gothic arch-headed window opening with a timber louvered frame. Four pinnacles rise from the corners of the battlemented parapet, with an octagonal spire rising from the top of the parapet.

The walls of the original nave and tower are finished in unpainted rough cast, while the 1870 section is finished in squared dark field stone with sandstone and Portland stone dressings. The roof is covered with natural slate and rainwater goods are in cast iron.

To the roadside there is a low boundary wall in rubble with granite coping. The wall supports simple wrought iron pointed-head railings with two gateways of simple style, curved at the top.

The first church on this site was built by Lord Moira in 1772, replacing the medieval parish church of Magheradroll, which stood roughly a mile to the southwest and had been used by both Catholics and members of the established church until that point. The spire of the new church is depicted in Thomas Robinson's near-contemporary painting of the 1798 Battle of Ballynahinch.

By the late 1820s the nave of the new church had fallen into disrepair and was demolished. A new nave was constructed in 1829 to 1830, apparently on the site of the old one, though the present irregular position of the tower suggests its siting may have been shifted. The largely rebuilt church is described in the Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1837 as a plain rectangular building with a square tower and spire.

In 1870 the nave was extended to the east side with the addition of three gabled bays, designed by Welland & Gillespie. The building was restored in 1922, at which time the rough cast render and the lean-to to the west may have been added.