Church

The National Monuments Service's description

On gentle N-facing slope with good views from SSE-S-SW. Clomantagh Castle (KK013-002001-) and bawn (KK013-002002-) are located c. 130m to the N. There are earthworks (KK013-002005-) in the field immediately N of the graveyard (KK013-003002-). The church is located close to S boundary wall of the roughly rectangular graveyard. According to Healy (1874-9) it is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary whose feast day is the 8th of September.
An undivided rectangular church (int. dims. 19.8m E-W x 6.7m N-S) composed of roughly coursed limestone rubble with larger blocks for the quoins and a base-batter (H 0.7m; Wth c. 0.2m on S side). There is a double bellcote surmounting the W gable, though only the N bellcote survives intact. According to the OS Letters (1839) the arch of the S bellcote was already broken away in 1839 (O’Flanagan ed. 1930, vol. 1, 161-2 (52-3)). All the walls contain putlog holes and plaster rendering can be seen on the N and S walls. Following a clean-up of the graveyard in the 1990s a large number of cut stones (KK013-003003-) were uncovered. Some were kept within the graveyard while others were placed in the adjoining field.
The church was entered through opposing doorways at the W end of the N and S walls. That in the N wall has been broken out and both doorways have been partially blocked up. The church was lit by six lancet windows, chamfered and rebated externally, two in the E gable and two at the E end of the church in the N wall and two opposite in the S wall. Only the heads and some upper jambs of the windows in the E gable survive. Internally these are within widely splaying round-headed embrasures. The window at the E end of the N wall is broken out and the masonry above it is missing, while only the head and sill survive of the window E of centre in this wall. The window at the E end of the S wall is well preserved but obscured by ivy, while the window E of centre in this wall is broken out, with only some voussoirs above the former window head surviving. The surviving window embrasures in the side walls are segmental headed. There is a breach in the wall at the E end of the S wall, where the piscina would have been located. In the wall opposite there is a possible aumbry, though all that remains is a recess with broken out masonry.
The lancet windows suggest a 13th-century date for this church.

See attached photographs:
KK013-003001-_01 Exterior E gable and N wall
KK013-003001-_02 Exterior from NE
KK013-003001-_03 Exterior E gable – detail of window heads
KK013-003001-_04 Interior E windows
KK013-003001-_05 Interior windows from E end showing doorways in side walls and W gable
KK013-003001-_06 Interior – S wall, window and breach at E end of S wall where the piscina was located
KK013-003001-_07 Interior –window E of centre in S wall
KK013-003001-_08 Interior –doorway in S wall

Compiled by: Jean Farrelly

Date of upload: 26 September 2022

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.

Healy, W. 1874-9 Notices of ecclesiastical ruins. Ossary Archaeological Transactions 1, 41-56.