Church

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated in a green belt area behind a housing estate. This is a small rectangular building orientated ENE-WSW (int. dims. Wth 4.8m, L 13.7m), and is a National Monument (No. 605) in state care.. It is built of uncoursed limestone masonry with dressed limestone quoins. Served as chapel for the tenants on the grange farm associated with the Priory of All Hallows (Joyce 1912, 276-77, Appleyard 1985, 153-4).

Comprises an undivided nave and chancel with steeply pitched gables. The nave is entered through opposing doorway (now headless). S door way is rebated and there are draw bars present. Interior of nave lit by a double light, cusped, ogee-headed window with a central mullion which is a modern replacement. It has an internal splay. The chancel is lit by a double-light ogee-headed window, partially restored with sandstone. There is a blocked ope in the S wall of the chancel. Either side of the chancel there are aumbries with a piscina at E end of S wall.

Excavations undertaken in 1986 exposed burial in the interior and sherds of 13th-century pottery (Swan 1987, 16-17). The site has been landscaped leaving no trace of the graveyard. Further investigations in 1999 uncovered the remains of a stone wall which may represent part of an eastern precinct wall. To the east the remains of a small stone 'water-house' were also found, which was dated to the mid- to late 17th century and was probably used to control water into a series of fishponds (marked on the Ordnance Survey map dated 1843). This structure was well built and tapped into a stone drain that extended through the entire site, allowing access to the water at that point. At the western end of the site the excavation exposed domestic refuse pits in an area that originally formed part of the pond complex.

Compiled by: Geraldine Stout

Date of upload: 26 August 2011

This monument is subject to a preservation order made under the National Monuments Acts 1930 to 2014 (PO no. 3/1981).

References

Appleyard, D.S. 1985 Green fields gone forever: the story of the Coolock and Artane Area. Dublin. Coolock Select Vestry.

Swan, D.L. and Ní Gabhlain, S. 1987 Grange Abbey, Grange. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 1986: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 16-17. Bray. Wordwell.

Joyce, W. St. John 1912 (Reprint 1995) The neighbourhood of Dublin by Weston St. John Joyce. Dublin. Hughes and Hughes.