Church

The National Monuments Service's description

On fairly flat land on the E bank of the River Arigna, which flows N-S c. 50m to the W, and within the landscaped demesne of Wellbrook House which is immediately to the NE. In the NW angle of an irregular four-sided graveyard (KK013-051002-). There is a dovecote (KK013-052----) c. 190m to the NE. According to Carrigan (1905, vol. 2, 264) St Kieran of Ossory is the patron of Clashacrow.
A church (int. dims. 5.38m N-S; 6.8m E-W) with a later three-storey residential tower (int. dims. 5.65m N-S; 2.2m E-W) added at the W end. Both the church and tower are heavily covered in ivy. In the 18th/19th century the church was remodelled and converted into a private mortuary chapel. Only the E gable and S wall (T 0.79m) of the church are original, the N wall is a complete rebuild. There is a blocked-up entrance (H 2.6m) at the W end of the S wall, the doorway itself does not survive. An 18th/19th century has been inserted into the original window embrasure in the E gable. There is a blocked up window (H 2m above int. ground level; embrasure Wth c. 1.9m; surviving H c. 1m) towards the E end of the S wall and the internal embrasure surround of this window, and that in the E gable, have fine diagonal tooling. At the E end of the S wall there is a round-headed piscina (H 0.63m; Wth 0.35m; D 0.33) with a circular basin (diam. 0.2m; D 0.05m). The internal face of the W wall of the mortuary chapel has a high arched recess (Wth 2.83m; D 0.72m) at the S end, which rises to first-floor level. Within the recess there is a blocked-up flat-headed opening (Wth 0.45m) at the S end and a loop S of centre within an embrasure (Wth 0.42m; D 0.46m) with a double splay, into both the chapel and the tower.
The tower is entered via a pointed doorway (H 1.7m; Wth 0.88m), with punch tooling, at the N end of the W wall of the mortuary chapel. This leads into a small lobby area with a flat-headed doorway opposite giving access to the ground-floor chamber and a mural stair to the N rising to first-floor level. The lintel of this doorway has partially broken off. At ground level there is a window (H 0.64m; Wth 0.08m) in the N wall and there are two recesses in the W wall (Wth 0.64m and 1.33m).
A mural stair rises in the N wall of the tower giving access to the first floor. This has a vaulted roof and a wooden floor, supported by corbels in the E and W wall of the tower. There is a wall cupboard and fireplace in the W wall. A doorway in the E wall gives access to a small mural chamber within the E wall. According to the OS Letters (1839) this chamber was locally known as 'the Bed', 'from a supposition that it was a hermit's cell' (O'Flanagan 1930, vol. 1, 205 (68)). The stair in the N wall continues to rise to a spiral stair in the NW angle which gives access to the second-floor level. Much of the second-floor does not survive, it was ‘thrown down almost to the level of the stone arch [vault]’ according to Carrigan (1905, vol. 2, 264).

See attached photographs:
KK013-051001-_01 S wall with piscina and window embrasure
KK013-051001-_02 Piscina
KK013-051001-_03 N wall – modern rebuild
KK013-051001-_04 W end of S wall – partially blocked doorway
KK013-051001-_05 W wall of church interior with doorway into residential tower
KK013-051001-_06 External doorway to residential tower in the W wall of the church interior
KK013-051001-_07 Internal doorway to residential tower looking W
KK013-051001-_08 View from external doorway of internal doorway to ground floor of residential tower and stair which rises in the N wall
KK013-051001-_09 External W wall of residential tower
KK013-051001-_10 External ground-floor loop in N wall of residential tower

Compiled by: Jean Farrelly

Date of upload: 13 September 2022

References

Carrigan, Rev. W. 1905 (Reprint 1981) The history and antiquities of the diocese of Ossory, 4 vols. Kilkenny. Roberts Books and Wellbrook Press.

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.