placenamesUrney
An Urnaí
The Urney church landscape near Clady links an eighteenth-century ruin with Christ Church on Bell Road and its continuing conservation.
The name
A reliable full-name meaning has not been established here. The recorded Irish and English forms are given without an unsupported translation.
Recorded forms
- An Urnaí · Irish · main form · validated name
- Urney · English · main form
Place & story
The earlier church
The ruined church in the cemetery beside Urney Road predates the present Christ Church. The parish’s account, published by the National Churches Trust, dates it to 1734 and associates the site with an earlier monastic foundation. The surviving eighteenth-century remains belong to a later phase of this religious landscape. Their position near the newer church makes the change of building legible, while the churchyard retains the older site’s role in local memory. [2]
Welland and Gillespie’s new church
Christ Church was constructed in 1864–66 to designs by Welland and Gillespie and consecrated on 27 July 1866. Andrew F. Knox provided the site, and the Omagh builder McGaughey carried out the work. The Irish Architectural Archive records a cost of £3,000, with £2,000 supplied by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. A cruciform plan, polygonal apse and tower with a broach spire distinguish the new building. The old church’s bell, dated 1730, was transferred into its tower, carrying a physical connection into the replacement. [3]
Memorials and conservation
The National Churches Trust identifies a baptistery window dedicated to the Herdman family, whose linen enterprises were important in the surrounding district. Furnishings in the chapel also preserve that association. The trust supported the building’s care through two £10,000 grants in 2025, one through Treasure Ireland and another through the Wolfson fabric repair programme. These awards addressed maintenance and urgent repairs, adding a recent chapter to the parish’s investment in its Victorian church. [2]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Tyrone
- Barony
- Strabane Lower
- Civil parish
- Urney
- Coordinates
- 54.77542, -7.67363 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 1414286 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Urney. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Christ Church, Urney · National Churches Trust / Urney Parish
- Co. Tyrone, Urney, Christ Church (CI), work 15904 · Irish Architectural Archive, Dictionary of Irish Architects
- Christ Church, Urney illustration: based on a Christ Church, Church of Ireland, Urney by Kenneth Allen. AI-assisted watercolour and ink adaptation; cream paper margins added, incidental clutter omitted and fine details simplified. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2012-01-24. How this page was prepared.