Survey Data
Reg No
31306705
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social
Original Use
Church/chapel
In Use As
Church/chapel
Date
1915 - 1920
Coordinates
89053, 296270
Date Recorded
18/11/2010
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached six-bay double-height Catholic church, built 1918; dedicated 1921, on a cruciform plan comprising three-bay double-height nave opening into single-bay (two-bay deep) double-height double-pile transepts centred on single-bay double-height chancel to crossing (east); single-bay single-storey flat-roofed re-entrant porches (west) on engaged octagonal plans. Renovated, 1954. Renovated, ----, with sanctuary reordered. Reroofed, 2010. Replacement pitched slate roofs on a cruciform plan with ridge tiles, and uPVC rainwater goods on box eaves. Rendered walls on rendered chamfered plinth with rendered battered buttresses piers to corners; roughcast surface finish to entrance (west) front. Paired round-headed window openings with concealed dressings framing storm glazing over fixed-pane fittings having lattice glazing bars. Grouped shouldered square-headed window openings (transepts) with concealed dressings framing storm glazing over fixed-pane fittings having lattice glazing bars. Roundels (gables) with concealed dressings framing storm glazing over fixed-pane fittings having lattice glazing bars. Round-headed "Trinity Window" (east) with concealed dressings framing storm glazing over fixed-pane fittings having leaded stained glass panels. Paired round-headed window openings to entrance (west) front with concealed dressings framing storm glazing over fixed-pane fittings having lattice glazing bars. Full-height interior with Classical-style timber panelled confessional box (west), central aisle between timber pews, Gothic-style timber stations (1891) between frosted glass windows, elliptical-headed arcades on drum pillars, and carpeted stepped dais to sanctuary to crossing (east) reordered, ----, with "lozenge"-detailed cut-veined white marble panelled altar below stained glass "Trinity Window" (----). Set in relandscaped grounds on a slightly elevated site.
Appraisal
A church representing an integral component of the early twentieth-century ecclesiastical heritage of County Mayo with the architectural value of the composition, one repurposing a lengthy "barn" chapel (1810) condemned as 'very long, very low and very damp' in a report commissioned by Canon Michael McDonald (1866-1940), suggested by such attributes as the cruciform plan form, aligned along a liturgically-correct axis; and the slender profile of the coupled openings underpinning a streamlined Romanesque theme with the chancel defined by a restrained "Trinity Window". Having been well maintained, the elementary form and massing survive intact together with quantities of the original fabric, both to the exterior and to the vaulted interior reordered (----) in accordance with the liturgical reforms sanctioned by the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican (1962-5) where a jewel-like "Trinity Window" highlights the modest artistic potential of a church making a pleasing visual statement in the shadow of the Nephin Beg Range.