Saint James's Catholic Church

Detached cruciform Roman Catholic church, built c.1900, with three-bay nave and vestry to south-west. Pitched slate roof with stone gables and tooled stone finial to gable. Roughcast render to walls with smooth rendered plinth and quoins. Pointed-arched window openings with rendered hoodmouldings, stained glass windows to nave and painted sills. Mosaic roundel to north-east gable wall. Oculus window to south-east gable with rendered hoodmoulding and stained glass, timber sash pointed windows with painted sills to vestry. Pointed-arched door opening with rendered hoodmoulding and timber battened double doors surmounted by fanlight. Interior with marble altar and king-post timber trusses to roof. Graveyard surrounding church with varied gravemarkers; the earliest legible example dates to the 1840s. Memorial to north-east of church, comprising timber cross set in concrete with plaque to front which reads ‘The famine 1845 – 1849, Eglish-Drumcullen 1841 pop. 6,644, 1851 pop. 4, 841, R.I.P.’ Flanked by tall yew trees. Roughcast rendered wall with crenellated coping bounds front site. Ashlar gate piers surmounted by pyramidal capping stones with cast-iron railings and gates gives access to church site.

Saint James's Catholic Church is typical of Catholic church design, constructed to a plain cruciform pattern. With painted hoodmouldings over attractive stained glass windows and pointed-arched doorway, the church expresses a pleasing design of architectural merit. As a reminder of the locality's history, the church has a remembrance monument to the people who perished in the famine, flanked by impressive yew trees. This structure, though plain, performs an important social function for the residents of the local community.