Church

The National Monuments Service's description

The church, together with lands along the River Liffey, was granted to the First Prior of St. Wolstan's Abbey (KD011-014----) on its foundation in 1202 (Kirkpatrick 1896, 283). The 'donagh' element of the church name suggests an Early Christian foundation, of which there is no obvious visible evidence. Stands in the W sector of a roadside graveyard (KD011-013002-). The remains consist of a fairly poorly preserved medieval parish church (Killanin and Duignan 1967, 160). A rectangular structure (int. dims. L 14.7m E-W; max. Wth 5.25m; av. wall T 1m) is comprised of a W-nave (dims. L 8.25m; Wth 5.25m) and a slightly narrower E-chancel (dims. L 5.2m E-W; Wth 3.65m) linked via a now collapsed chancel arch (wall T 1.2m). A later rectangular chapel (int. dims. L 5.15m N-S; Wth 3.3m; wall T 0.9m) extends N from the chancel and is accessed through a well preserved, round archway (Wth 3.3m; H 3m). Both buildings are constructed of rubble limestone masonry although occasional rough coursing is visible. The interiors are overgrown and partially covered with collapsed rubble. A later, well-preserved, gabled porch protects the round-arched entrance doorway (Wth 1.3m; H 1.9m) near the W end of the S wall of the nave. The doorway contains two substantial barring-slot holes on its E side, and a stoup projects from the inner wall face immediately to the E. The nave is lit by a square-headed, single-light window, set in a broadly splaying embrasure in the W gable wall which has substantial external buttressing and is topped by an ivy-clad bellcote. The central portion of the S wall is collapsed and only the ivy-covered lower courses of the N wall survive. The chancel is lit by a twin-light, cusped-ogee-headed window in E gable wall which may be a later insertion as this wall has been altered and raised as is evidenced by the scar of an older and lower gable-line visible on the outer wall face. There is a single-light, cusped-ogee-headed window at the E end of the S wall. The later chapel is entered from the chancel via a large round arched ope composed of undressed voussoirs which spring from a plain abacus string course the under-part of which is chamfered. A large window in the N gable wall is now broken out but the jambs are hollow-chamfered internally and externally and contain glazing grooves and mortices. Below the window there is a flat-headed relieving arch and in the chapel floor the burial vault of the Allen family, where William Allen was buried c. 1558 (Lyster 1903-5, 98-99). An area of irregular infill at the centre of the E wall may have contained a second window and there is a small piscine which is T-shaped in plan and has a pointed-arched sandstone surround at the S end of the E wall. The S wall contains two small aumbries, at the N and S ends. A wooden post and wire fence encloses the church, coming within 2.5m of it along the S.

Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy

Date of upload: 10 June 2011