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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Church

Oileán Máisean, County Galway, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Church, Oileán Máisean, County Galway, with a pin at the register's coordinates
Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915), covering this location. Courtesy of the National Library of Scotland. The pin is ours, placed from the register's coordinates.

The record

Townland
Oileán Máisean
County
Galway
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Chapel (in ruins)
Latest-edition OS map
Chapel (in Ruins)
Coordinates
53.30040, -9.88615
SMR number
GA076-011001-

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

4 historical maps cover this location, the earliest the 1753 map "Mappa geographica Regni Hiberniae" (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).

Historical maps covering this location

  • 1753 · Mappa geographica Regni Hiberniae (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1790 · Composite: Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1869 · Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1891 · Ireland 16 (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

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This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗

The National Monuments Service's description

In a slight hollow, near the centre of the island. This small, poorly preserved, early Christian church (ext. dims. 8m E-W; 4.9m N-S) is orientated E-W. It is built of mortared, randomly coursed local granite. The mortar consists of sand and lime with seashell inclusions. Untypically the simple trabeate doorway (H 1.46m; Wth 0.6m) is located off-centre in the N wall (av. H 1.4m; Wth 0.8m); its lintel is missing. The E gable has almost completely collapsed. The remains of a splayed window are visible in the S wall (max. H 1.4m). No features are evident in the W gable (max. ext. H 2m); its external face is obscured with collapse. The interior of the church is very uneven due to the collapsed material. Externally heavy bramble growth is evident along the W end of the N wall, both gables and the S wall. Immediately to the N of the church is a small subrectangular graveyard (17.8m by 16.2m ext.) (GA076-011002-) defined by a slab-revetted stone wall (H 1.5m; Wth 1.2m). Its original entrance (Wth 1m), at W, is flanked by tall stones. A leacht (GA076-011005-), with a cross-slab (GA076-011006-) and a bullaun (GA076-011004-), is visible c. 7m to the N of the church and another ruined leacht (GA076-011007-) lies c. 8m to the W of the graveyard. A pair of enigmatic portal stones (see GA076-011009-) stand 12m to the E of the church. (Higgins 1987, 334, 356; Robinson 1985, 30)

The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Galway Vol. I - West Galway'. Compiled by Paul Gosling (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1993). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Revised by: Olive Alcock

Date of upload: 28 April 2014

Nearby in the register

Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.

Sites and Monuments Record data: National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Record text is reproduced unchanged. National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland · CC BY 4.0
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