Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland
Church
Bayswell, County Kilkenny, Ireland
The record
- Townland
- Bayswell
- County
- Kilkenny
- Country
- Ireland
- First-edition OS map
- Church (in ruins)
- Latest-edition OS map
- Church (in Ruins)
- Coordinates
- 52.76443, -7.62108
- SMR number
- KK008-066001-
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries
Shown on 4 historical map sheets, the earliest the 1790 "Composite: Ireland." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).
This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗
The National Monuments Service's description
On the summit of a N-S ridge overlooking lower land to the E and W, in rolling pasture. The church is located in the NW angle of the graveyard, the graveyard wall running up to the N end of the E gable and the W end of the S wall. According to the OS Letters (1839) the church is known as 'Teampall na Ratha' or the church of the rath, probably in reference to the ringfort (KK008-142----) 30m N of the church (O'Flanagan 1930, vol. 1, 116-17 (39)). At time of inspection in 1987 the interior of the church was overgrown with trees and the walls were obscured by ivy. It is rectangular in plan (int. dims. 5.9m N-S; 14.2m E-W; ext. dims. 7.3m N-S; 15.6m E-W; wall T 0.7m), aligned E-W, built of roughly cut, coursed masonry. There is a window in the E gable and a niche, probably for a piscina, at the E end of the S wall. The OS Letters (ibid.) provide additional information describing, 'a broken doorway in the south side ten feet [c. 3m] from western gable; there is a window in each side at eight feet six inches [c. 2.6m] from east gable, three feet three inches [c. 1m] wide inside, broken at top and outside. There is a broken topped window in the east gable five feet [c. 1.5m] wide, ten feet [c. 3m] high to the springing of the arch inside; eight feet [c. 2.4m] high and nine inches [0.23m] wide on the outside. The arch has disappeared excepting the first stone'. Carrigan (1905, vol. 2, 300-302) mentions that the 'gables are fallen to a level with the side-walls' and that, 'Corbels for the support of a gallery project at the west end'. Associated with the church and graveyard (KK008-006002-) is a font (KK008-006003-), a graveslab (KK008-006004-) and a leacht (KK008-006-005-).
Compiled by: Jean Farrelly
Date of upload: 24 October 2017
References
O'Flanagan, Rev. M. (Compiler) 1930 Letters containing information relative to the antiquities of the county of Kilkenny collected during the progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1839. Bray.
Carrigan, Rev. W. 1905 (Reprint 1981) The history and antiquities of the diocese of Ossory, 4 vols. Kilkenny. Roberts Books and Wellbrook Press.
Nearby in the register
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.