St Patricks RC Church, Chapel Hill Road, Mayobridge, Newry, Co Down, BT34 2EL

St Patrick's Roman Catholic Church, Mayobridge

St Patrick's is a large mid-19th-century Gothic Revival basilica church set on an elevated graveyard on the east side of Chapel Hill Road, aligned west to east. The building was erected under the direction of Father John Brennan, with the foundation stone blessed by Dr Leahy, Coadjutor of the Diocese, on 15 August 1859, and the church dedicated by Bishop Leahy on 12 October 1862. Father Brennan died on 17 December 1868, aged 50 years.

The nave has a steeply pitched natural slate roof with Celtic cross finials and slightly raised skews and kneelers to the gables. An ogee-moulded masonry eaves course supports modern metal box gutters. The lean-to roofs of the side aisles are similarly detailed but less steeply pitched. Walls are constructed of dressed granite irregular blocks with finely dressed chamfered rubble base courses. All openings are trimmed with stepped finely dressed sandstone.

The principal elevation faces west. The main entrance sits at centre, accessed by three dressed granite steps leading to a pair of tongue-and-groove sheeted doors with decorative strap hinges set within a Gothic-headed doorway with chamfered two-order reveals and hood mould with plain stops. A small brass plaque fixed in the right reveal records the church's founding and dedication details, with a modern stone plaque bearing an identical inscription set into the wall near the right corner. Modern tubular metal handrails flank the entrance.

The west gable above the entrance features a large Gothic-arched sandstone panel containing a plate tracery window of three tall lancet windows—the central one taller—with stained and leaded glass and chamfered reveals with splayed cills. Above the lancets are three roundels with cusped leaded lights. A common hood mould crowns the composition. In the gable apex is a small cusped vent. Flanking the front gable, set back slightly, are the west ends of each side aisle, each containing a plate tracery window with a pair of lancets and a roundel in their common spandrel.

The north elevation of the nave is almost completely abutted at ground floor by the side aisle, leaving only a narrow portion of wall exposed at the east end with a two-staged stepped buttress and a single lancet window at ground floor. At clerestory level, just below the eaves, are five roughly square cusped windows containing modern leaded lights.

The north side aisle is divided into five bays. The first four bays each contain a pair of leaded lancet windows. The fourth bay contains a gabled porch with a steeply pitched natural slate roof with stone ridge, partially tied into the aisle roof. The porch end gable contains a doorway identical to but slightly smaller than the main entrance. A modern concrete wheelchair ramp provides access. The porch's side elevations are identical, each featuring three small cusped windows with modern glazing.

The east (rear) gable of the nave contains three tall lancet windows to centre—the central one taller—without hood mould. The wall tapers at its base where north and south buttresses abut.

The south elevation of the main block is similar in all respects to the north elevation. The south side aisle differs: the first (left) bay is abutted by a porch identical to that on the north elevation. The second, third, and fourth bays contain pairs of lancet windows. The fifth bay is abutted by a sacristy.

The sacristy has a steeply pitched roof tied into the top of the side aisle roof at a lower eaves level, detailed as the main block. Its south end gable is blank except for a slightly advanced chimney breast which insteps two stages and rises to a square-section chimney with chamfered corners and moulded coping. The west (left) elevation has three granite steps leading to a tongue-and-groove sheeted door with strap hinges, set within an opening with a shouldered arch head and chamfered reveals. To its right is a single lancet window with leaded coloured glazing. Below it, a flight of steps enclosed by modern railings and trap door leads to a basement boiler room. The east (right) elevation has two lancets detailed as that on the west elevation. A modern oil tank is adjacent.

To the rear left of the church, the site rises and a grotto is built into the bank. Constructed of quarry-faced rubble granite, it has a central niche containing a statue of Mary with St Bernadette at her feet. A finely dressed granite plaque in the right corner reads "Erected to Our Lady of Lourdes / by the parishioners of Mayobridge / in honour of the Marian Year 1987-88".

On the slope behind the grotto stands a bronze bell supported on a welded steel skeletal frame on a granite ashlar plinth. The bell is engraved with Latin text and dated 1866, bearing the maker's mark "J O'Byrne Foundry, Dublin". The same maker produced a bell at St Colman's Roman Catholic Church, Longstone Road, Rathfriland. A wheel pulley operates the bell.

The graveyard fills the north and south of the churchyard and has been further enlarged to the south, bounded to the east and south by large mature beech trees. The north side contains a plain 20th-century hall of no architectural interest. The memorials range from 19th-century slate and dressed granite gravestones to modern polished examples, with three notable exceptions: a large Celtic cross on the west side of the north churchyard dedicated to Rose Loughran (died 1892), standing on an inscribed chamfered three-stage plinth with all faces decorated with carved early Christian repeat patterns and cable mouldings; the Bradley memorial (1868) on the east side of the south churchyard—a tall, finely dressed circular granite pillar with conical coping, projecting chamfered base, and raised inscribed crest; and the Moore memorial on the east side of the north churchyard, a roughly dressed stone with an incised cross and irregular text reading "P C A K A / Moore / Buley, RIP".