A £2m project to restore one of County Down's oldest churches has been lauded as a 'labour of love'.

St Mark's Church of Ireland in Newtownards underwent substantive stone restoration works, carried out by Cunningham Stone NI Ltd.

Four years after the scheme commenced, locals can once again enjoy the beauty of the historic 1816 building.

Funding for the works came from a number of different bodies; The Heritage Lottery Fund, an Environment and Heritage Service Award and the Representative Church Body Fabric Fund with the remaining monies being raised through fundraising efforts by parishioners.

Rev Ken Smyth, who has been in the parish for 26 years, is pleased with the result.

"The stonework had deteriorated to such an extent that if something wasn’t done there would have been major problems."

During the restoration process, 90% of the church’s Scrabo stonework was replaced.

Alan Cunningham, sales director at Cunningham Stone, said: "It is a fantastic showcase for the company and our dedicated skilled craftsmen.

"There was a huge amount of detailed stonework to replace on the building including tracery windows, buttress quoins and caps, string courses, crenulations, arched balustrades, carved pinnacles and ashlar stone work.

"There were eighteen 2.7m high carved pinnacles, which were made by our masons and carvers in Kilkeel."

He said each pinnacle took 15 weeks to make by hand.

Douglas Thompson, parish project manager, described the restoration project as a "labour of love" for all the parishioners.

"You look up at some of the faces on the gargoyles - those are all carved by local people and it is great to see that skill is still available."

The design team and consultants consisted mainly of DSC Partnership headed up by the architect Robin Scott and stone consultant John Kelly from Lithan Ltd.

Cunningham Stone has been involved in a number of large restoration projects over the past few years, St Peter’s Cathedral in Belfast and Armagh Cathedral in Armagh.

(PR/KMcA)