Survey Data
Reg No
31301010
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social
Original Use
Church/chapel
Date
1840 - 1855
Coordinates
70228, 335415
Date Recorded
14/01/2011
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached five-bay double-height single-cell Catholic church, begun 1845; completed 1853, on a rectangular plan with single-bay single-storey gabled projecting porch to entrance (west) front. Now disused. Part tar-covered pitched slate roof on collared timber construction with clay ridge tiles, coping to gables including coping to gable (east) with Celtic Cross finial to apex, and no rainwater goods surviving on rendered eaves retaining cast-iron downpipes; pitched (gabled) roof (porch) with remains of slate, roll moulded clay ridge tiles, coping to gables on "Cavetto" kneelers with Celtic Cross finial to apex, and no rainwater goods on timber eaves boards retaining cast-iron downpipe. Rendered battered walls with concealed rough hewn rubble stone flush quoins to corners; rendered surface finish (porch). Pointed-arch window openings with rendered chamfered sills, timber Y-mullions, and concealed red brick voussoirs framing iron mesh storm panels over fixed-pane fittings having stained glass margins centred on leaded stained glass panels. Pointed-arch window opening (east) with rendered chamfered sill, and concealed red brick voussoirs with fitting now boarded-up. Set in unkempt grounds on a slightly elevated site with rendered concrete block piers to perimeter supporting tubular steel "farm gate".
Appraisal
A church representing an integral component of the mid nineteenth-century ecclesiastical heritage of the environs of Béal an Mhuirthead [Belmullet] with the architectural value of the composition suggested by such attributes as the elongated rectilinear "barn" plan form, aligned along a liturgically-correct axis; and the "pointed" profile of the openings underpinning a stolid Georgian Gothic theme. A prolonged period of neglect notwithstanding, the elementary form and massing survive intact together with substantial quantities of the original fabric including, remarkably, some stained glass highlighting the modest artistic potential of a church making a picturesque, if increasingly forlorn visual statement in a gently rolling setting.