[Larne]

Have you tried separating the church and sky onto different layers and then processing the sky separately before adding them back together? That would give the sky more consistency, avoiding the lighter bits towards the bottom, and would avoid the problems with the top of the church.

If I kind of squint at it I get the idea of where you are going with it and I reckon there is a great picture in there waiting to come out, it just needs a bit of tweaking.