Church

The National Monuments Service's description

St Catherine's church is situated in a small walled graveyard north of road at Portraine village overlooking the Dublin coastline and Lambay Island. The church is rectangular in plan with an undivided nave and chancel, aligned E-W and a battlemented W Tower (int. dims. L 15.30m, Wth 5.35m). The N side of the church is largely re-built. The chancel end is inset on this side. Entrance through a round arched doorway in W end of S wall. Interior is lit by two single light opes in S wall with chamfered limestone jambs. There are sill remains of a wide E window. The W Tower stands to three storeys with a belfry stage and a battered exterior. It has a relatively small interior (int. dims L 3.5m, Wth 2.3m). W window has Y-shaped tracery. First floor is lit by a large plain almost flat arched window in S wall and a slit ope in the E facing wall. Similar opes in the second floor. There are carved heads on the N and S walls of the tower. Described as a ruin in 1630 (Ronan 1941, 68). The Civil survey (1654-6) mentions this as an 'old parish church' on the farm at Portraine (Simington 1945, 149; Mc Mahon 1991, 32).
According to the 2011 structural survey, the battlements on the tower have suffered from considerable mortar wash out and require to be repointed. Some areas of exterior and interior arches need re-pointing (Nolan 2011).

Compiled by: Geraldine Stout

Updated by: Christine Baker

Date of upload: 19 December 2014

References

Simington, R.C. (ed.) 1945 The Civil survey, AD 1654-1656. Vol. VII: county of Dublin. Dublin. Irish Manuscripts Commission.

Ronan, M.V. 1941 Archbishop Bulkeley's Visitation of Dublin, 1630. Archivium Hibernicum 8, 56-98.

McMahon, M. 1991 Medieval church sites of north Dublin. Dublin. Stationery Office.

Nolan, D. 2011 Structural Assessment & Proposals for Repair for Fifteen Archaeological Monuments in Fingal County Council Ownership, http://www.fingal.ie/media/Structural%20assessment%20of%20archaeological%20monuments%20in%20Fingal.pdf