Holy Trinity, Templeport, Roman Catholic

Built by Rev Patrick Maguire in 1796, this church is a fine example of a barn-type church typical of Catholic and Non-conformist places of worship of the eighteenth and early nineteenth century. The church has an unusual layout with the altar placed on the long side with twin entrances opposite and galleries to the ends, a pattern more usual for Presbyterian country churches. Architectural historian Maurice Craig remarked that the glazing of the south wall is probably original and that of the north wall is likely to date to the early nineteenth-century. Ordnance Survey maps indicate that the sacristy was added in the mid-nineteenth century. The church has been disused since the 1970s when it was replaced by the Modernist church in Bawnboy. It retains many original materials, features, and furnishings, and is an important example of its kind. The survival of early fittings and finishes such as the tiled floor and a wealth of historic furnishings is extremely rare, the latest alterations being the altar added in the 1940s. The interior is of great social heritage interest and provides rare insight into the historic form of simple country churches in the late eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth centuries.

[  National Inventory of Architectural Heritage ]