The church was built in 1813 just as the penal laws ended and it was a huge improvement on the thatched mass house on Athgoe Hill which had been in use since 1685.

A lot of the £1,500 needed to build the church was given by Peter Warren Locke and local labour was supplied free of charge. The building of a church, a school and a priestís house helped the village to begin to grow again after it decayed in the 1700's.

The church is a barn church, typical of the period and is built exactly in the east - west direction.