St. Mary’s Chapel (RC), Upper Chapel Street, Newry, Co Down, BT34 2EL

St. Mary's Chapel is a Roman Catholic chapel of T-shaped plan dating from 1790, though substantially altered since its construction. It occupies a prominent position within a large hillside cemetery accessed from Chapel Street via a rendered archway with gabled copings, to the left of which stands a grotto containing statues of St Mary and St Bernadette.

The base of the T faces east towards Chapel Street. The building is roofed in pitched natural slate with red clay ridges and gables to each arm of the T; the gable verges are coped and surmounted by masonry crosses. Half-round metal rainwater gutters and circular downpipes serve the roof. The walls are rendered in painted wet dash, with a raised and painted smooth-rendered plinth. Stepped quoins, hood mouldings, window dressings, and a platband run around the entire building at gallery window cill level.

The three gables are designed identically, each featuring a central hood-moulded rose window at first floor, above which is a small trefoil ventilation opening. A granite datestone inscribed 'AD 1790' appears above the window on the east gable (at the base of the T). The left cheek of the east gable contains a semicircular hood-moulded window with tripartite tracery at first floor.

The building's most distinctive feature is its arrangement of three galleries at first floor level, one in each arm of the T, each accessed independently. Later additions flank both cheeks of the east gable and contain the entrances to both ground and first floors. On the right cheek of the east gable, filling the angle between the base and right arm of the T, is a two-storey extension of L-plan. This extension contains small pointed-arch windows with coloured glass lights serving toilets on the first floor. On the left cheek is a one-storey extension housing the vestry and robing rooms, with a flat roof containing two roof lights, accessed from a small modern porch on its south side containing a modern framed and sheeted external door. Above this extension a modern porch rises via steps, with a pitched natural slate roof and raised gable, containing a modern framed and sheeted door giving access to the gallery in the south arm.

The west-facing elevation (top of T) is symmetrically arranged about a statue of the Virgin Mary surrounded by an elliptical band with raised star designs at the cardinal points. This statue is flanked on each side by a hood-moulded semicircular-headed stained glass window, itself flanked on the outside by a taller hood-moulded semicircular-headed window with tripartite tracery and diamond-pane lattice glazing. These outer windows incorporate modern mosaic work in three middle panels at gallery floor level: the central panel displays a large gold cross on a red and blue background, whilst the flanking panels feature small gold crosses on green backgrounds with gold borders.

Access from Chapel Street is via the rendered archway leading to a path which continues to steps serving the right extension, whilst a sloping path descends to the ground floor entrance and cemetery. A long flight of steps also descends from Chapel Street to the north, with metal gates hung from rendered posts of square cross-section marking the entrance. The Chapel Street boundary is defined by metal railings with circular heads incorporating various Christian symbols such as alpha and omega.

The cemetery adjoins the chapel. The earliest legible headstone dates to 1735, and the graveyard also contains reburied remains from the former abbey as well as various Newry bishops.