Reg No
13825040
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Archaeological, Architectural, Artistic, Social
Previous Name
Holy Trinity Church (Carlingford)
Original Use
Church/chapel
In Use As
Heritage centre/interpretative centre
Date
1820 - 1825
Coordinates
318914, 311549
Date Recorded
08/08/2005
Date Updated
--/--/--
Freestanding former Church of Ireland church, dated 1821, incorporating fabric of earlier building and now used as heritage centre. Five-bay side elevation to nave, medieval crenellated stone tower to west, sacristy to north-east. Pitched slate roof, clay ridge tiles, smooth rendered chimneystack to sacristy, stone verge coping, cast-iron gutters on stone corbelled eaves course, cast-iron downpipes. Painted roughcast rendered walling, random rubble stone walling to tower. Pointed arch window openings, stone sills, timber Y-tracery lattice windows; round-headed window opening to east, splayed ashlar limestone surround, hood moulding with label stops, traceried stained glass memorial window; square-headed louvered openings to tower. Round-headed door opening to tower, limestone voussoirs, painted timber vertically-sheeted door, spider web fanlight; pointed arch opening to nave, roughly dressed stone surround, opening now blocked and partially intersected by nave window. Interior of church has been converted into heritage centre. Set within graveyard with upright and recumbent stone grave markers, bounded by random rubble stone wall, random rubble partially roughcast rendered gate piers to east, wrought-iron gates.
The former Church of the Holy Trinity was founded in the 1660s and incorporates an earlier medieval tower. The existing building was constructed in 1821 incorporating many of the earlier features. Though the structure is no longer in religious use, the main elements of the church remain including the delicate diamond-pane traceried windows to the nave and the decorative east window. The elevated site over the town of Carlingford is one of importance and enables the structure to be seen from many vantage points. The graveyard with its early stone markers encircles the church and is a site of historical and archaeological importance.