Church

The National Monuments Service's description

On a N-facing slope overlooking marshy land. According to Fahey (1904, 218-9) and Hynes (1904, 15), this medieval church was dedicated to St Attracta. It consists of a well-preserved ivy-mantled rectangular building (c. 19.8m E-W; c. 7.6m N-S) which is roughly centrally located in a graveyard (GA122-104001-). Access is gained via a pointed arch doorway at the W end of the N wall. A round-headed window is visible to the E of the doorway, and further to the E again there is a wall monument (GA122-104002-). A triple-light cusped ogee-headed window is set off-centre in the E gable. Fahey (1904, 218-19) suggested that the two 'curious projections' carved on its mullions appeared ‘to be stone stables for holding bolts’. That on the N mullion ends in a carved human head, while that on the S one ends in an animal head. A wall cupboard is visible towards the E end of the S wall. To its W there is a single-light ogee-headed window and further W again a single-light round-headed window. The W gable is featureless apart from a small round-headed window high up in the gable, indicating that there was formerly a loft at this end of the church. Harbison (2005, 22-3) suggests that the church is unlikely to be much earlier than AD 1200 as its E end is characterised by the use of cyclopean masonry. Its W end appears to have been rebuilt sometime around the 15th century. At this time the church may have been lengthened and, if so, the original W doorway was replaced with that in the N wall. Also at this time the upper portions of the side-walls and the E window were rebuilt and some of the narrow round-headed windows of the earlier construction phase were re-inserted in the side-walls. A partially worked boulder now perched on the wall tomb is reputed to be that tied to St Colman's mother when she was thrown into the Kiltartan River (Fahey 1904, 218-19). (O'Flanagan 1927a, Vol. 2, 602-7)

Compiled by: Olive Alcock

Date of upload: 10 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.

Harbison, P. 2005 A thousand years of church heritage in east Galway. Dublin, Ashfield Press.

Hynes, T. 1903-4 Irish names of places. Journal of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society 3, 115.

Fahey, J. 1904 Some places of interest near Gort visited by the society August 11th 1904. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 34, 218-19.