Bansha Church (Templeneiry)

Detached Church of Ireland church, built 1718 and extensively renovated 1793-4, with two-stage entrance tower to west with octagonal drum and spire added 1814, and having two-bay nave. Pitched slate roof with ridge tiles, limestone eaves course and cast-iron rainwater goods. Sandstone crenellations to east and west gables with cross and ball finials to east, and coursed sandstone to tower and spire, with moulded string courses to tower. Diagonal buttresses to second stage of tower, topped with carved finials, and with crenellations and carved detail to frieze to drum. Roughcast rendered walls to nave. Pointed-arch window openings to nave, with replacement fixed timber Y-tracery and intersecting tracery windows, having fine stained-glass window to east. Hood-mouldings to north elevation, stone sill to east. Blind oculus with hood-moulding to tower, lancet openings to drum with hood-mouldings and timber louvres. Chamfered pointed-arch door opening to tower, with hood-moulding and date plaque over, having replacement timber door and over-door. Accessed via stone steps. Set in well-established graveyard that surrounds church on all sides. Rubble boundary wall with coursed, capped stone piers to northwest, with wrought-iron gates.

This is a modest late eighteenth-century church, with the addition of a spire to the west end, which lends an air of grandeur. High-quality stonemasonry is exhibited in the stone carving and masonry of the tower and spire. The situation of this church in a historic graveyard adds further significance to this site, and its elevated setting creates a visually pleasing group.