Church

The National Monuments Service's description

Towards the SSW corner of a graveyard (CO010-003002-), within an early ecclesiastical enclosure (CO010-003001-) and c. 3m S of a later church (CO010-003003-). Ruin of a rectangular church (6.33m E-W; 4.45m N-S), with antae (Wth 0.7m) at each end. Leask (1955, 62) dates it to the 9th or 10th centuries. It was identified by Power (1932b, 30, 53) as Eidhnen Molaga, the chief church of Tuath O Cuscraidh Sleibhe.

The walls (Wth c. 0.75m) survive to a height of c. 1.3m; no opes are apparent apart from the W doorway, but Cochrane (1912, 4) states that in 1845 the E gable and window were still perfect, as well as a stone altar and a window in the S wall. The W wall has a central doorway (Wth 0.65m): the door is formed by two jambstones supporting a lintel, each cut from a single block of sandstone; the opening is bordered by a projecting architrave; the jambstones incline slightly inwards at the top. Stonework above the W doorway is an OPW restoration based on an earlier sketch (Leask ibid., 61). Crawford (1914, 172) illustrates a heart-shaped finial stone with two sunken panels and projecting 'wings', which probably topped the gable of this church. Inside the church are a saint's tomb, known as 'St Molaga's Bed' (CO010-003005-) and (formerly) a stone cross (CO010-003006-). Also on inspection were recorded a half-cylindrical sandstone fragment (L 0.32m; Wth 0.41m), hollowed in the centre, possibly part of a column or cross-shaft; and a cut-sandstone fragment which may form part of a round-arched window head.

The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 4: North Cork' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2000). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

This is a National Monument in State Ownership (no. 18).

Date of upload/revision: 14 January 2009

Image provided by and copyright of Amanda Clarke 2016-2022 https://holywellscorkandkerry.com/

References

Cochrane, R. 1912 Notes on the structures in the county of Cork vested in the Board of Works for preservation as ancient monuments, Parts 1-5. Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society 18, 1-25, 57-75, 122-33, 175-81, 182-200.

Crawford, H.S. 1914 Finial Stones. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 44, 172.

Power, P. 1932b (ed.) Crichad an Chaoillí, being the topography of ancient Fermoy. Cork University Press.

Leask, H.G. 1955 (Reprint 1977 and 1987) Irish churches and monastic buildings, vol. I. The first phases of the Romanesque. Dundalk. Dundalgan Press.