St Patrick's R.C Church, New Line, Drumintee, Newry, Co Armagh, BT35 8TA

St Patrick's Roman Catholic Church at Drumintee near Newry is a mid-nineteenth-century basilica church constructed of roughly dressed granite with limestone dressings. The building is aligned roughly east to west on the west side of New Line, occupying a churchyard at the junction of Finegans Road and New Line.

The main church body features a pitched natural slate roof with concrete verges and a trio of key architectural elements: a three-stage tower at the west end, side aisles with monopitched slate roofs, and a modern single-storey sacristy abutting the southwest corner. Granite crosses, raised on plinth blocks, crown each gable – the western cross is cloverleaf in form, whilst the eastern is Celtic. Two octagonal metal vents sit centrally on the ridge; the western example is now missing except for its base. Modern metal rainwater goods are supported on granite brackets.

The walls are built of roughly dressed granite randomly laid. All buttresses and quoins are quarry-faced limestone at the east end, but granite elsewhere. All window and door openings have stepped and chamfered finely dressed limestone reveals, with voussoir granite courses spanning their heads.

The eastern gable, which contains the principal entrance, displays a chamfered limestone base course and two limestone cill courses. At the junction of the gable and side aisles, two-stage buttresses with stepped offsets rise to the level of the side aisle roofs; buttresses at the end of each aisle gable rise to cill course level. Stepped quoins rise above all buttresses. The entrance itself comprises a pair of Gothic-headed timber doors set within a deep moulded limestone reveal with hood mould. To either side stands a single lancet window. Above the entrance is a polished granite datestone inscribed 'S. Patricio / Dedicatum / 1869'. Above this are three tall lancet windows, the central one being taller than its neighbours. At the gable apex is a trefoil niche with limestone dressing. Each side aisle displays a pair of lancets with cill courses. Beneath a window on the south side aisle is a large polished stone memorial dedicated to Andrew McDonald, who died in 1875.

The south elevation contains seven openings arranged widthwise. Those at clerestory level consist of paired lancets diminished in height; those to the side aisle are similarly detailed except for the second opening from the right, which comprises a pair of Gothic-headed timber doors in a moulded limestone reveal.

The western gable mirrors the eastern gable, displaying three lancets and a trefoil niche. Its right corner is abutted by the sacristy, whilst its left end is abutted by the tower.

The modern sacristy is square in plan with a narrow link joining it to the main church on its east face. It has a pitched natural slate roof with plastic rainwater goods and walls constructed of granite and sandstone with strap cement pointing. The west face contains three narrow top-hung timber casement windows with flush concrete cills. The north and south faces are blank. A modern tongue-and-groove door occupies the south face of the link block.

The north elevation is detailed as the south elevation of the nave but is only six openings wide, with the right end abutted by the tower and consequently lacking a buttress.

The three-stage tower features four-stage buttresses to each corner. The north face of the first stage contains an entrance door matching those to the aisles. The west face displays a pair of lancets, whilst the east face abuts the right side aisle. The second stage has a single tall lancet window to all exposed faces. The third stage rises above the church roof level and features a crenellated parapet. Each face of this stage has a pair of louvred lancet openings with a central louvred ventilation roundel above. The buttress offsets form a cill course. Below the parapet is a moulded granite cornice. The parapet has finely dressed square-sectioned pinnacles to each corner, with lancet-headed recessed panels to all exposed faces.

The church is set within a churchyard enclosed to the roads by walls – that to Finegans Road is random rubble, whilst the other is cement rendered with concrete copings. The building is accessed by a steep flight of steps rising to the sacristy at the southwest corner and by a modern threshold with bollards to the principal east elevation. The churchyard contains numerous nineteenth and twentieth-century memorials, all oriented to face east.