Church

The National Monuments Service's description

Within a graveyard (GA107-109001-) c. 700m to the WNW of Killimor village. Described in the OS Letters (O’Flanagan 1927, Vol. 2, 74-5) as ‘the largest parish church of the period … in Ireland, being 75 feet [c. 22.8m] long and 18 [c. 5.4m] broad’. What survives of this partially reconstructed medieval church is the E gable with the adjoining returns of the N and S side-walls, and the free-standing W gable in which a difference in masonry is suggestive of two phases of construction. Surviving architectural features include a two-light cusped tracery window and quatrefoil in the E gable, the remains of a two-light mullioned window in the N side-wall and an opposing robbed-out window in the S side-wall. An internal division at the W end of N wall is indicative of a chancel (L 6.8m; Wth 5.1m). A small rectangular window in the W gable suggests the former presence of a loft at this end of the church. According to the OS Letters (ibid.), there was a chapel, called 'Seipéal Ui Mhaoilcheir, off the S side of the church. It was built by a family of that name whose burial place was there. It was completely destroyed some years prior to 1838 and no visible surface trace it survives. There is a holy well (GA107-111----) c. 45m to the NE and a cross (GA107-112----) c. 75m to the E.

Compiled by: Galway Archaeological Survey, UCG

Date of upload: 2 March 2020

References

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.