Donagheady Presbyterian Church, Strabane

Donagheady Presbyterian Church on Altrest Road, Bready, near Strabane, County Tyrone, is a mid-nineteenth-century Presbyterian meeting house known historically as Second Donagheady. It is listed Grade B in Northern Ireland (HB10/10/008).

Overview

The Northern Ireland stone database and congregational records describe a detached six-bay hall of 1855 in plain Gothic style, opened in 1856 on the site of an earlier T-plan meeting house. Walls are coursed squared local Dalradian schist with Tyrone Carboniferous sandstone; the roof is pitched slate. Six tall lancets have Y-tracery. The entrance gable has a pointed-arch doorway below a large pointed arch with three lancets and a date stone of 1855. Stone for the masonry came from a quarry at Upper Sollus.

The new church is rectangular, with a vestibule, rooms above, and a gallery on three sides. Congregational records state that the architect’s name was never entered in the minute books. The earlier First Donagheady congregation dated from the seventeenth century; the present building succeeded a T-plan church whose pulpit stood in the long wall. The Northern Ireland listing is a Department for Communities designation, not a Historic England or Cadw entry.

Further Information

• Stone Database NI: Donagheady Second Presbyterian Church
• Opening of New Second Donagheady Presbyterian Church, 1856
• NI Historic Buildings: HB10/10/008