Church

The National Monuments Service's description

Within a graveyard (GA125-022002-) to the N of Ballynakill village. Described by O'Donovan in 1838 as a ruined church, the doorway in the W gable was of 'quadrangular form' and its sides were 'somewhat battered'. It was capped with two lintel stones that met 'nearly in the middle'. A breach in the centre of the E gable, one at each end of the N wall and one at the W end of the S wall marked the positions of windows (O’Flanagan 1927, Vol. 2, 503-4). The church (c. 14m E-W; c. 7m N-S; wall T 0.8m), rectangular in plan, is constructed of roughly worked coursed and mortared limestone and is densely overgrown with ivy. Only the S side-wall survives almost to its original height ( H 3-3.5m) and its internal face is rendered. The others walls (H 1-1.5m) are much lower. All that survives of the doorway is its base and no other architectural features are now visible. A number of burials and an 18th-century vault are visible in the interior. A bullaun stone, possibly associated with the church, noted on the grassy verge W side of the roadway, to the W of the church, has been moved and is now outside the St Joseph's R.C. church (GA125-068----) in Ballnakilll. See GA125-068001- for its present location. A castle (GA125-036----) lies c. 175m to SSE.

Compiled by: Galway Archaeological Survey, UCG

Updated by: Olive Alcock

Date of revised upload: 27 July 2023

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.