Survey Data
Reg No
41401815
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Social
Previous Name
Creevagh Presbyterian Meeting House
Original Use
Church/chapel
In Use As
Church/chapel
Date
1785 - 1905
Coordinates
270197, 322938
Date Recorded
29/04/2012
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Free-standing single-cell gable-fronted Presbyterian church, dated 1789 and refurbished 1900, having four-bay long walls. Pitched slate roof with rendered copings and replacement rainwater goods. Lined-and-ruled rendered walls, roughcast rendered to south elevation with render quoins and inscribed date plaques to front (north) elevation. Pointed-arch window openings to long walls with margined Y-tracery timber lights under render mouldings and having tooled limestone sills, pointed opening to south elevation with timber tracery. Recessed pointed-arch door opening to front elevation having render moulding, and double-leaf timber battened door opening to rounded splayed concrete steps. Interior having smooth rendered walls, with timber panelled dado to nave, having flat plastered ceiling with roll-moulded cornice. Central line of nineteenth-century carved pews flanked by an aisle and pews to east and west, original timber flooring throughout. Carved wooden pulpit with pointed-arch arcade to centre of south end, having steps from nave to each side. Timber panelled screen with pointed-arch detail behind pulpit, filling pointed-arch window opening. Chamfered rendered window surrounds, with timber sills. Two pointed-arch door openings, with timber door surround and panelled doors, accessing vestibule at north end. Dog-legged timber stairs to west of vestibule, accessing meeting room at first floor level. Graveyard to east and grassy area to west, with hedge to road having wrought-iron pedestrian gate, and with gateway having square-plan render piers with stone caps set at diagonals to west elevation.
Appraisal
Creevagh Reformed Presbyterian Church is prominently situated on the main Ballybay to Monaghan road. The Church has five congregations in the Republic, two churches in Monaghan at Creevagh and Fairview, and 32 congregations in Northern Ireland. The Reformed Church has its origins in seventeenth-century Ulster Presbyterianism, from which it broke away in the late seventeenth century for theological reasons. This well-built and plainly detailed church is enlivened by elegant plain stained-glass windows and the carved pews and pointed-arch doors add interest to the simple interior. It is typical of non-conformist churches built in Ireland at this time. Creevagh graveyard to the east contains some attractive nineteenth-century gravestones, and the church played an important social role for this rural community.