Church

The National Monuments Service's description

On the gently rising E side of the Nore river valley, in rolling grassland. Aligned E-W N of centre in a sub-square graveyard (KK010-060002-). There are good views in all directions. A nave (int. dims. 10m E-W; c. 6m N-S; wall T 0.6m) and chancel (int. dims. 5.6m E-W; 4m N-S; wall T c. 0.7m) church of roughly coursed rubble masonry, though only the S wall of the nave survives and a short length of return at E and W ends and most of the chancel, except the W end of the N wall. The church is very overgrown, the walls obscured by heavy ivy growth and the interior covered in brambles. There is a pointed doorway (Wth 0.89m; H 1.6m), punch-dressed with drafted margins, chamfered externally, in the S wall of the nave, 4.5m from the W gable. There are two broken out window opes in the S wall, one near the W gable and the other E of the doorway. There is a sketch of the latter window in the OS Letters (1839) (O’Flanagan ed. 1930, vol. 1, 25 (8-9)) and it is described by Carrigan (1905, vol. 2, 194) as, ‘a flat-headed window with cut-stone frame, chamfered at the edge; externally, it is but 4 in. [0.1m] wide and 3 ft. 5 in. [1m] high; on the inside, it splays to a width of 5 ft. [1.5m]. This window was never glazed, being merely furnished with a wooden shutter, the curious heel-stone of which appears in situ inside’. Carrigan (ibid.) also noted two corbels towards the W end of the S wall, suggesting there was a gallery at the W end of the nave.
The chancel is lit by a central E window, described by Carrigan (ibid.) as, ‘6 ft. 2 in. [1.87m] high and 13 in. [0.33m] wide, on the outside, with an internal splay 4 ft. [1.2m] wide, on the inside’. The surrounds of the E window are missing, with only the voussoirs surviving. The E splay of a window embrasure survives in the N wall. On either side of the E window Carrigan (ibid., 195) describes, ‘two apertures, 5 or 6 in. [0.12-0.15m] square, though and through the wall. He also notes that the chancel is not bonded to the nave, appearing to be of slightly later date (ibid.). There is a segmental-headed doorway (Wth 0.82m; H c. 1m) in the S wall of the chancel, only the thin voussoirs survive. According to Carrigan (ibid., 194), this doorway ‘formerly led into the sacristy; at present it leads into a modernly built enclosure, which contains the tombs of the Murphy family of Gragara and Annaghs castle’. Within the chancel Carrigan (ibid. 195-6) notes a 13th/14th century graveslab (KK010-060004-) and a dispersed wall monument (KK010-060003-). He also refers to a font (KK010-060005-/KK010-083----) which was moved from here to the churchyard of Conahy R.C. church (ibid. 196).

Compiled by: Jean Farrelly

Date of upload: 4 March 2019

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.