Clonallan Parish Church, Clonallan Road, Warrenpoint, Newry, Co Down, BT34 3QQ

Clonallan Parish Church is a Church of Ireland barn-plan church with tower, built in the late 17th century under Bishop Jeremy Taylor and refurbished in the 1870s. It stands in a mature churchyard on the east side of Clonallan Road, aligned roughly east to west. The name Clonallan derives from the Irish Cluain Dallain, meaning Dallan's Meadow. The site is reputed to be that of an Early Christian church founded in the 6th century by St. Conall, said to have been burned by the Normans and again destroyed in the 1641 rebellion. Rectors and curates can be traced back to 1422. The church retains a good Victorian interior with box pews and numerous memorials of quality.

The church has a pitched natural slate roof with plain bargeboards to the east end and an advanced eaves course carrying half-round cast-iron rainwater goods. All walls are wet cement-dashed with a smooth rendered base course.

A two-stage tower abuts the front (west) gable of the church, its first stage rising to the apex of the nave roof. A dressed granite platband separates the two stages. The second stage has clasping ashlar granite piers at each corner with tapering octagonal pinnacles, between which are embattled and coped dashed parapets on dentilled corbelled bases. The front (west) face of the tower has a semicircular-headed chamfered doorway with deep painted reveals, set slightly to the right of centre at ground-floor level. This contains a deeply recessed Gothic-headed tongue-and-groove sheeted door with a central louvre panel, framed by a narrow pole-moulded stucco architrave. Above, centred on the face, is an ogee-headed fixed window of three-by-five panes with a granite cill, its top three panes curving with the ogee head. The north and south cheeks of the first stage are blank. The second stage, which functions as a belfry and rises above the church roof so as to be exposed on all four sides, has a semicircular-headed louvred opening on each face. The exposed portions of the main church's west gable, to the left and right of the abutting tower, are blank.

The left (north) elevation of the church is otherwise blank, but is abutted to the left of centre by a small porch with a pitched natural slate roof and walls finished to match the church. The porch's north end wall has an infilled semicircular-headed doorway with finely dressed granite jambs and head; both cheeks are blank.

The rear (east) gable is abutted by a low single-storey vestry whose flat leaded roof is obscured on all sides by a low slated parapet; its walls match those of the church. The vestry's east face is blank, its north cheek has a modern six-panelled door, and its south cheek has a modern fixed timber window. Above the vestry, on the main east gable of the church, is a three-paned Gothic-headed window with masonry tracery framing three cusped lancets — the central one taller — with trefoils in the spandrels, all with leaded and coloured glass.

The right (south) elevation has three regularly spaced semicircular-headed window openings, each containing a pair of semicircular-headed lancets with a common spandrel over. All have cast-iron frames with quarry glazing and a hopper window to the middle of the right-hand panel.

The churchyard is enclosed to Clonallan Road and Rath Road by a polygonal granite rubble dwarf wall with pitched dressed granite copings. This wall steps up in height a number of times toward the north end and carries cast-iron railings with fleur-de-lis finials and decorative queen posts with urn finials. Centrally placed granite ashlar pillars with pyramidal copings carry matching gates. The north boundary is enclosed by a higher rubble stone wall. The ground to the east of the church falls away to a bog. The churchyard has been extended southward during the 20th century.

The graveyard immediately around the church contains many memorials in various styles, the majority facing east. The earlier memorials are typically in local granite — some no more than rounded stones without inscriptions, with later ones plainly dressed and inscribed. Early 19th-century memorials are also mostly in granite, though some are in slate and others in red sandstone. Late 19th-century memorials are typically in Newry granite, with a few notable exceptions. Among the more significant individual memorials are the following:

Peachey Sowerby memorial (c.1702). A plain granite memorial with a steeply curving top, inscribed: 'IN MEMORY of Captain Peachey Sowerby of Whitehaven who died 20th April 1792.'

William Ormondy memorial (c.1734). A sandstone gravestone with a rounded head swept out at each side, inscribed: 'Here lieth the body of William Ormondy died May 20th 1734.'

George Duke memorial (c.1782). A sandstone gravestone with a swept head, inscribed: 'This is the resting place of George Duke who departed this life the 30th Aug. 1782 aged 69 years.'

Felix Corran memorial (c.1790). A thin granite gravestone with a moulded rounded head and chamfered sides, inscribed: 'Here lieth the body of Cap. Felix Corran who departed this life the 1st day of March 1790 aged 70 years.'

Hugh Savage memorial (c.1843). A slate memorial with three rounded lobes to the top, inscribed: 'To the memory of Hugh Savage many years servant of Roger Hall Esq. of Narrow Water. Died at Warrenpoint June 27th 1853. Aged 42 years. This memorial is inscribed by one who witnessed in him and admired patience in tribulation, faith in redeeming love, assurance of coming Glory unclouded and unquenched through protracted sufferings — death swallowed up in victory.'

Eleanor Harriet Simms memorial (c.1895), at the north-west corner of the churchyard. A chamfered granite plinth supports a sandstone slab carved to resemble a rocky outcrop. Over its sloping east face the stone is finely carved to form an open inscribed scroll with a very delicately carved floral arrangement at the bottom right. Leaded letters are set into the face of the scroll.

Edward Richards memorial (c.1883). A polished granite tombstone with a steep hipped top, its north face inscribed: 'EDWARD RICHARDS B.A. CAN. AB. M.A. DUB. CLERK OF HOLY ORDERS 47 YEARS RECTOR OF CLONALLAN AND CHANCELLOR OF DROMORE DIED ON THE 12TH OF FEBRUARY A.D. 1883 AGED 85 YEARS.' Richards was the occupant of Clonallan Rectory (now Mount St Columb), and his sons erected Rathturret House.

George Gartley Moore memorial (c.1888). A small gravestone with tapering chamfered sides and a trefoil-moulded head. Quatrefoil flowers are carved at the left and right ends of each face, with lead lettering. The grave is enclosed by heavy chains hung from matching chamfered flower-carved posts.

William Watson memorial (c.1873), at the north-west corner of the churchyard. A red sandstone Gothic Revival gravestone in the form of a gable, pierced by a trefoil opening, on a chamfered base. It has a cusped Gothic inset containing an inscribed white marble panel. Small colonettes are placed at each corner of the gable sides, and the gable itself has gabled kneelers and a heavy cruciform gabled finial. The plot is enclosed by a matching pitched Gothic dwarf wall. Dedicated to William Watson JP of Aughnavilla Lodge and his wife Mary (died 1892).

William James Hall memorial (c.1915). A plain sandstone shield with chamfered edges, laid on a large flat polished pink granite tombstone.

Hall family plot (late 19th to early 20th century). A linear enclosure with a low chamfered ashlar granite dwarf wall containing five plots, four of which have plain dressed granite tombstones with chamfered edges and lead letters; the fifth plot is unmarked. A representative example is the Roger Hall memorial (c.1939), inscribed: 'IN LOVING MEMORY OF ROGER HALL OF NARROW WATER CAPTAIN ROYAL FUSILIERS BORN 6 AUGUST 1894 DIED 3RD FEBRUARY 1939.' The Hall family are associated with Narrow Water Castle.

Mary Jane Fleming memorial (c.1942). A large boulder, the top of which has a recessed circular panel with painted lead letters reading: 'TO MY BELOVED MOTHER MARY JANE FLEMING OF THE CRAG, ROSTREVOR PASSED ON OCTOBER 16TH 1942.'