Survey Data
Reg No
31303702
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social, Technical
Original Use
Church/chapel
In Use As
Church/chapel
Date
1915 - 1920
Coordinates
103746, 311572
Date Recorded
20/01/2011
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached seven-bay double-height single-cell Catholic church, begun 1916; dated 1916, on a T-shaped plan centred on single-bay single-storey gabled projecting porch. Renovated, ----, with sanctuary reordered. Pitched slate roofs on a T-shaped plan centred on pitched (gabled) slate roof with clay ridge tiles, concrete coping to gables on "Cavetto"-detailed corbel kneelers including concrete coping to gable (north) on "Cavetto"-detailed corbel kneelers with rendered buttressed bellcote to apex, and cast-iron rainwater goods on beaded "Cavetto" consoles retaining cast-iron downpipes. Gritdashed roughcast walls on rendered battered plinth with rendered strips to corners. Round-headed central door opening with replacement poured concrete ramp, and rendered surround having chamfered reveals with hood moulding over on beaded "Cavetto" label stops framing timber boarded or tongue-and-groove timber panelled double doors. Round-headed window openings to "cheeks" with concrete sills, and rendered surrounds framing storm glazing over fixed-pane fittings having stained glass margins centred on square leaded glazing bars. Round-headed window openings with concrete sills, and rendered surrounds having chamfered reveals with hood mouldings over on beaded "Cavetto" label stops framing storm glazing over fixed-pane fittings having stained glass margins centred on square leaded glazing bars. Round-headed "Trinity Windows" to gables including round-headed stepped "Trinity Window" (south) with concrete sills, and rendered surrounds having chamfered reveals with hood mouldings over on beaded "Cavetto" label stops framing storm glazing over fixed-pane fittings having stained glass margins centred on square leaded glazing bars. Interior including vestibule with tessellated "quarry tile" floor; round-headed door opening into nave with timber boarded or tongue-and-groove timber panelled double doors having overpanel; full-height interior open into roof with carpeted central aisle between Maltese Cross-detailed timber pews, Romanesque-style timber memorial stations between frosted glass windows, cut-veined white marble stepped dais to sanctuary (north) reordered, ----, with cut-veined white marble stepped "predella" supporting altar table below frosted glass "Trinity Window", and exposed strutted collared timber roof construction on beaded "Cavetto" corbels with wind braced rafters to ceiling on carved timber cornice on quatrefoil-perforated frieze. Set in own grounds with rendered piers to perimeter having shallow pyramidal capping supporting cast-iron double gates.
Appraisal
A church erected to a design by William Henry Byrne and Son (formed 1902) of Suffolk Street, Dublin (Irish Builder 1916, 288), representing an integral component of the early twentieth-century ecclesiastical heritage of County Mayo with the architectural value of the composition, one recalling the contemporary Catholic Church of Our Lady Star of the Sea (1912-3), Corrán Buí [Curraunboy] (see 31300401), confirmed by such attributes as the rectilinear "barn" plan form centred on an expressed porch; the slender profile of the openings underpinning a streamlined Romanesque theme with the chancel defined by an elegant "Trinity Window"; and the handsome bellcote embellishing the roofline as a picturesque eye-catcher in the landscape. Having been well maintained, the elementary form and massing survive intact together with substantial quantities of the original fabric, both to the exterior and to the interior reordered (----) in accordance with the liturgical reforms sanctioned by the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican (1962-5): meanwhile, an exposed timber roof construction pinpoints the engineering or technical dexterity of a church making a pleasing visual statement in a gently rolling raised bogland setting encircled by the Nephin Beg Range.