St. Patrick’s Church, Castledawson

Castledawson, County Derry

This was McGurk Architects first commissioned community project of note.

In accordance with the latest Vatican doctrine on places of worship, this scheme incorporates traditional church design elements. Square in plan and robust in appearance, the church’s perimeter walls, roofed in natural slate, are constructed in blockwork, cladded with basalt stone with cut sandstone window surrounds. Three circular brick and copper roofed drums protrude from the square, which was rotated at 45 degrees relative to the site’s New Row road boundary. This alignment allows the church to maintain the traditional Christian church orientations of the altar located in the west and the entrance located to the east to be facilitated.

The church seats four hundred people with no member of the congregation further than fifteen metres from the celebrant in a circular seating arrangement. The central processional aisle is naturally lit by a patent glazed roof-light across the entire nave and there are two subservient side aisles. Both the chancel and the nave are described as circular forms at either end of the central aisle.

The building’s main features include the frameless glass tower over the sanctuary and cable-wired suspended crucifix, roof lighting over the nave, stained glass windows, white oak timber seating and ash ceiling. McGurk Architects designed all the furniture for the church, including the altar and seating.