Lowe Country
The best place names in Ireland are derived from Gaelic. Swatragh is an anglicisation of Baile an tSuaitrigh meaning “townland of the billeted solder”. On the edge of the Sperrin Mountains, this village is a cluster of buildings lining the Carthill Road leading to Garvagh to the north and Maghera to the south. A little piece of (mid) Victorian architecture and a little piece of (very late) Georgian architecture greet motorists at either entrance to the village. One architect designed, one vernacular.
Killelagh Parish Church stands above a field at the southern entrance to Swatragh. This Church of Ireland building is well documented: architect Joseph Welland’s drawings dated February 1852 are archived in the Representative Church Body Library, Dublin. The black ink elevation drawings include such details as the chancel arch jamb. Joseph was born in Midleton, County Cork, in 1798. His father was agent to the 4th Viscount Midleton whose brother was Archbishop of Cashel. This connection introduced Joseph as an assistant John Bowden architect to the Board of First Fruits. Joseph would become his master’s successor. He designed over 100 new churches and took over finishing St Stephen’s on Mount Street Crescent, the ‘pepper pot church’, in Dublin, after his master had died.
In contrast to the Greek Revivalism of St Stephen’s, Killelagh Parish Church is gothic. The neat compact rough and cut stone architecture is all about high pitched gables, pointed arches, buttresses and a small square tower supporting an even smaller octagonal tower topped by a spirelet. A stone family gravestone opposite the entrance porch is inscribed: “Erected in memory of Robert Lowe who died 20 May 1872 aged 68 years. Also his wife Mary who died 5 May 1878 aged 75 years. Also their son Robert who died 10 February 1866 aged 30 years. Samuel Lowe who died 14 December 1892 aged 62 years.”
Friel’s Bar and Restaurant stands close to Carthill Road at the northern entrance to Swatragh. It is of a similar style to the townhouses of the County Down towns of Hillsborough and Moira. Basalt rough stone walls, red brick camber headed and quoined window surrounds, 12 pane sash windows, pitched natural slate roof … a familiar picturesque provincial composition. The entrance door with plain sidelights and an oblong fanlight is set in a white painted rendered arched recess. A symmetrical five bay single storey block appears as a floating villa partly balancing over a lower floor wedged into the sloping ground. Built in 1835, the coaching inn was later used for various purposes before being bought by John Friel in 1903. Dermot and Caitriona, the fifth generation of the Friel family, run the bar and restaurant.
