Church

The National Monuments Service's description

In improved pasture, just NNE of an early ecclesiastical enclosure (CL005-027001-), that gave its name ‘Rath Boirne’ to the parish and nearby river. Indicated and named ‘Rathborney church (in ruins)’ on the 1840 and 1916 eds. of the OS 6-inch map.
A moderately well-preserved single-cell church (int. dims. 18.1m E-W; 6.3m N-S) with roughly coursed battered walls (T 1.1m), constructed of roughly dressed limestone blocks. The walls and gables survive to their full height but a belfry on the west gable, mentioned in the 1839 OS letters (Comber 1997, 74), no longer survives. The doorway is at the W end of the S wall and there are windows at the E end of the S wall and just N of centre in the E gable. There are several putlog holes in the N wall and a string course near its top. A stone head projects from the external SW corner. The W wall is plain and featureless. Patches of plaster survive on the internal and external walls.
The doorway is pointed (Wth 1.3m; H 2.15m) and has an ornate external moulding. There is a putlog-hole for a drawbar on its E side, a corresponding shallow groove on its W side and a hanging eye above this. An ornate stoup is carved into the interior of the E embrasure. The lower decorative parts of the door jambs have been removed and some of the fragments lie about the graveyard. The E window comprises two pairs of cusped ogee-headed windows, one above the other, with a flat external hood moulding, set in a splayed embrasure (int. Wth 1.2m; Wth at window 0.73m; H 2.6m). Recent rubble has been built on the base of an altar (T 0.6m) inside the E window. The single-light, cusped, ogee-headed window (H 1.6m; Wth 0.19m) in the S wall is set in a small splayed embrasure with a round head – which itself is set in a larger flat-headed embrasure. The larger embrasure has a boxed niche (Wth 0.31m; H 0.23m; D 0.33m) at E.
Swinfen (1992, 110) and Westropp (1900, 131-2) agree that most of the standing structure dates to c. 1500, but that there is earlier fabric visible in the lower parts of the E and N walls. Swinfen (1992, 110) records its founder as ‘unknown’.
There are two headstones with walled graves and eleven flat slabs in the interior of the church and a graveyard (CL005-027003-) extends to the S and into the adjacent enclosure (CL005-027001-). There is a bullaun stone (CL005-027005-) c. 30m to the south of the church and a souterrain entrance (CL005-027004-) in the enclosure c. 25m to ESE.

The following images have been uploaded:
CL005-027002-_01.jpg External S wall of church (Large 2011)
CL005-027002-_02.jpg View of church from NE (Large 2011)
CL005-027002-_03.jpg Door and window details (Large 2011)
CL005-027002-_04.jpg Internal view of gables (Large 2011)

Compiled by: Mary Tunney and Ros Ó Maoldúin

Date of upload: 26 January 2022

References

Comber, M. (ed.) 1997 The antiquities of County Clare: John O’Donovan and Eugene Curry: Ordnance Survey Letters 1839. Clasp Press. Ennis.

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.

Westropp, T.J. 1900-02 The churches of Co. Clare and the origin of the ecclesiastical divisions in that county. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Series 3, vol. 6, 100-180.