Church

The National Monuments Service's description

Immediately W of the road and immediately outside the S end of the E wall of a graveyard (CO027-041001-). This rectangular structure (int: 7.75m N-S; 3.7m E-W), consists of a single vaulted chamber (vault axis N-S), partially below the present ground level. On inspection the top of the structure was sod covered, except for a stump of masonry at the SW corner. The 1842 OS 6-inch map shows a L-shaped structure here (c. 12m N-S; c. 13m E-W; Wth S arm c. 4m; Wth E arm c. 3m) named 'friary (in ruins)' - but there is no other friary at Glanworth listed in Gwynn and Hadcock (1988), beside the Dominican friary (‘Rock Abbey’, CO027-040----), located N. of the village, c. 200m from this structure. Windele, writing c.1849 (Grove White 1905-25, vol. 3, 137), appears to describe this structure as the 'ruins of the old parochial church; very ruinous; a vault beneath it inhabited by some poor family!'. Byrne (1912, 169) described it as 'vestiges' of a church or religious house, but was unable to find any information on it. This structure therefore is likely to be part of the medieval parish church of Glanworth, perhaps the base of a residential tower attached to the church. The church at Glanworth was reported 'in ruins' in 1615 (Brady 1863, vol. 2, 214).

Each side wall of the chamber has two shallow square-set recesses covered by a segmental arch, of which only the top 0.3m is now visible due to the build-up of debris on the floor of the chamber. There is a similar embrasure at the W end of the N wall but it is missing its arch. There are fragmentary remains of an arched ope high up on the S wall. At the E end of the N wall is a doorway leading to mural stairs ascending to the W; the stairway is partially blocked with debris. Externally, the ground now covers the walls almost to the level of the vault; the outer face has fallen on the S and E sides but the S part of the W wall remains, forming part of the graveyard boundary; the N part is replaced by a later wall which continues for a short distance (c. 2m) to the N beyond the NW corner of the tower and pre-dates the continuation of the graveyard wall. The W part of the S graveyard boundary consists of wall in three sections: the first (L 4.6m) post dates the vaulted structure but pre-dates the next section of wall (L 6m), which is similar to the E graveyard wall; the third section (L 5.3m; H c. 6m) appears to be the wall of a building formerly extending to the S of the graveyard, butt-ended to the W, continuing c. 1m to the E as a low wall (H c. 1m).

This is a National Monument in State Ownership (no. 558).

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.

Date of upload/revision: 14 January 2009

References

Brady, W.M. 1863 Clerical and parochial records of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, 3 vols. Privately published.

Byrne, J. 1912 Glanworth. Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society 18, 165-75.

Grove, W.J. 1905-25 Historical and topographical notes etc. on Buttevant, Doneraile, Mallow, and places in their vicinity, 4 vols. Cork. Guy.

Gwynn, A. and Hadcock, R.N. 1970 (Reprint 1988) Medieval religious houses of Ireland. Dublin. Irish Academic Press.