Church

The National Monuments Service's description

Located on a rise in pastureland, within the E half of an ecclesiastical enclosure (GA055-027001-), and overlooking Lough Corrib to the SW. According to the OS Letters (O'Flanagan 1927, Vol. 1, 182-3), this church 'is believed to have been originally a chapel of ease, and not a parish church'. It consists of a ruinous medieval church (ext. dims. 12.25m E-W; 7.3m N-S; av. wall T 0.8m). When visited by the Survey in June 1984, apart from the S half of the W gable, it was densely overgrown with ivy. Where visible, the walls were built of mortared undressed regular large and small stone blocks. Coursing was evident at the lower levels but became more haphazard towards the centres and then more regular again towards the tops. Only the W gable wall survived intact. The E gable was missing its apex and the N and S side-walls had been reduced in height; the centre of the S wall just survived to a height of 1m. The only architectural features visible were a pointed arch doorway, with an internal hanging eye on its W side, near the W end of the S wall, and a tall single-light window (head missing) and an aumbry in the E gable. While the interior of the church was totally overgrown with trees and briars, some small ivy-covered stones evident towards its centre may have been grave-markers associated with a children’s burial ground (GA055-027003-). The ivy was subsequently removed from the church following a proposed graveyard clean up in 1988 (SMR file) but by 2004 it was heavily overgrown again (Halpin et al. 2004). On inspection then the remains of the E side of the base of a window were visible towards the E end of the S wall and a ‘carved head’ (see GA055-027007-) was noted on the upper SE corner (ibid., 20). Burials in the graveyard (GA055-027005-) immediately surrounding the church date from the early 19th century. (Alcock et al. 1999, 299)

Compiled by: Olive Alcock

Date of upload: 18 September 2020

References

Alcock, O., de Hora, K. and Gosling, P. 1999 Archaeological Inventory of County Galway. Vol. II. North Galway. Dublin. Stationery Office.

O'Flanagan, Rev. M. (Compiler) 1927 Letters containing information relative to the antiquities of the county of Galway collected during the progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1839. Typescript in 3 vols. Bray.

Halpin, S., Kretsch, C., Keely, B., Ó Monacháin, C. and Moore, D. 2004 Archaeological, ecological & structural survey of Cargin Church, county Galway on behalf of Cargin Cemetery Committee. Moore Archaeological & Environmental Services Ltd. Report available at: http://homepage.eircom.net/~cargincemetery/report.pdf last accessed 18 September 2020.