St Colman's RC Church, Milltown Street, Burren, Warrenpoint, Newry, Co Down, BT34 3SA

St Colman's Roman Catholic Church is a cruciform 19th-century building located on the east side of Milltown Street in Burren, Warrenpoint, set within a graveyard and bounded to the east by the road.

The church was consecrated in 1833, following its initiation in 1829 by Parish Priest Rev Peter Murphy. The land was donated by Roger Hall of Narrow Water Castle. The building originally appeared as a T-plan on the 1834 Ordnance Survey map, and was reconfigured into its present cruciform plan by 1860. A timber bell tower originally stood to the right side of the church and was later replaced by the present bellcote.

The structure has a pitched natural slate roof throughout. All gables are coped with moulded kneelers. The large gabled open bellcote at the top of the east gable contains a bronze bell. The west gable has a small chimney pot, and the north and south gables have cross finials. Modern timber eaves support half-round rainwater goods. All walls are pebbledashed and painted with a chamfered smooth basecourse in contrasting colour.

The east gable entrance comprises a pair of diagonally-sheeted timber doors with strap hinges set in a Gothic headed opening with key block and moulded rendered architraves inset with a granite block in the middle of the jambs, inscribed with a Maltese cross. Two pink terrazzo steps lead up from the path. Rising from the spring level of the door arch on either side are tall lancet windows with narrow rendered architraves, cills, and leaded lights with additional outer security glazing. Centred in the gable apex above the door is a large statue of Our Lady standing on a moulded projecting canted plinth beneath a cusped and gabled canopy.

The north and south cheeks of the nave are identical, each containing a single lancet window set to the west end. The east cheek of the north transept has a similar lancet at the left and a door at the right, mirroring the front entrance. The east cheek of the south transept mirrors this arrangement. The north gable of the north transept has two lancet windows, and its smooth basecourse steps up to the west end in line with ground level. The west elevation of the north transept is blank. Immediately in front of it stands a small single-storey toilet block with pitched artificial roof, boxed eaves, and plain bargeboards, with half-round metal gutters and walls matching the main block. The block has two modern doors and a small one-pane casement to the west-facing gable, a small window to the left cheek, and a door to the right cheek.

The west gable (sanctuary) advances from the transepts and features a large finely dressed granite rose window with rendered hood mould. Each cheek has a small lancet set high up to light the sanctuary. The single-storey sacristy, partly abutting the west gable, has a pitched natural slate roof hipped at the join with the church, with tiled skews and walls matching the main block. Its west gable contains a small timber Y-tracery fixed lancet light at the left, and a tongue-and-groove sheeted door and small 2x2 fixed paned window to the right, with a bootscraper to the left of the door. The left (north) cheek has a modern partly-louvred door. The right cheek and right cheek of the sanctuary are abutted by a flat-roofed extension to the sanctuary, which also partly abuts the west wall of the south transept. This extension has a felt roof and line-rendered walls, with a modern four-paned fixed window with external bars and concrete cill on its west elevation, and two 2/2 sliding sashes (vertically divided) with cills and external bars on the right (south) cheek. The west wall of the south transept is blank. The south gable of the south transept mirrors the north gable of the north transept.

The church has been extensively altered. Pews were installed sometime after 1843; these were donated to Tamnaharry House in 1927 but subsequently returned to the gallery. The original altar rail now forms the gallery balustrade. Extensive renovations were carried out in 1939–40 under the supervision of architect Mr T. McClean, including marbling which now adorns the sanctuary and main aisle. An internal photograph of around 1900 shows the sanctuary end to have been very different from its present form, with the nave roof in panels (as the present sacristy roof is) rather than timber, and walls painted in a Gothic Revival repeat to a high dado level. The original altar was a large Gothic affair with a bas-relief carving depicting Christ being taken down from the cross; this carving is now in St Patrick's Church, Mayobridge. To its rear was a large Gothic screen with angles, arcades, and statues. The interior was reconfigured in the 1960s following Vatican II, and the modern fittings and pews are stylistically inappropriate. The church has lost its original altar and reredos.

The graveyard contains various memorials, mostly in slate or granite dating from the early-to-mid 19th century. To the north of the main entrance stands a granite chest-tomb on a plinth, cruciform in plan with gabled ends and copings; its plaque (probably metal) has been removed from the east end. Many later 19th-century memorials are granite Celtic crosses. A granite rubble grotto stands in the northwest corner. A roughly dressed and strap-pointed granite block wall with chamfered granite coping encloses the main road boundary. At the main entrance, two gabled gate piers flank a wide opening containing a pair of post-war gates, railings, and flanking narrower gates, all with inset motifs. Steps and ramping pathways rise to the main entrance, with a path running around the church. A modern parochial house stands to the west.