Church

The National Monuments Service's description

In a remote and exposed location on the SW shore of Aughinish Island. A very poorly preserved church (int. dims. 12.6m ENE-WSW; 4.5m NNW-SSE) with walls (Wth 0.78m) of roughly squared limestone blocks with a heavily mortared rubble core. The church is heavily weathered by the sea and only the N wall survives for its full length. According to Swinfen (1992) it is known locally as the ‘Orchard (Ullord) Church’ and has a date of 1617 carved on one of the large stones high up on the outside of the N wall. On inspection in April 2014 most of the S wall was found to be destroyed following heavy storms and could only be traced as a single masonry course for most of its length. Only a 2m length of the W gable survived with most of the outer facing stones torn away. The N end of the E gable remained as it had been on a previous inspection in 1997. The storm surge had deposited a rocky ‘storm beach’ on the interior of the church and building stones from the church could be seen amidst the beach stones immediately to the S. Although visible human remains had been reported previously, none were visible during the April 2014 inspection. In May 2019 exposed burials (CL003-010004-) were noted close to the NW corner of the church. A curving arc of bank c. 10m to the E may represent the remains of an ecclesiastical enclosure (CL003-010002-). A shell midden (CL003-010003-) stretches for c. 10m from the W gable of the church. A children’s burial ground (CL003-012----) lies c. 230m to the SE.

Revised by: Mary Tunney

Date of revision: 21 May 2019

References

Swinfen, A. 1992 Forgotten stones: Ancient church sites of the Burren and environs. Dublin. Lilliput Press.

Large, S. 2011 A church and graveyard survey in County Clare. Database and photographic record. Clare County Council. Clare Heritage Forum. The Heritage Council.