Church

The National Monuments Service's description

Close to the S shore of Lough Melvin. Thought to be the site of the early church of Doiremelle, which was founded by Tigernach of Killeagh c. 800 AD as a nunnery for his mother, St. Mella (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 380), but this is the result of confusion with the church at Derryvella, Co. Tipperary (TS048-035001-). This church is probably a medieval chapel that served the local population using the nearby crannog and tower houses. The church is a rectangular structure (int. dims 10.95m E-W; 5.56m N-S) of randomly coursed semi-ashlar sandstone masonry walls (max. Wth 1m; max. H 5m at E) with dressed quoins. It survives almost complete, except the N wall which is largely reduced to a cairn. There is a destroyed doorway (Wth 1.4m; surviving H 1.9m) towards the W end of the S wall and a destroyed light towards its E end. Much of the S wall fell during 2016. The E window is a single light (Wth 0.37m; H c. 2m). The W gable is the E wall of a tower house (LE002-015005-) that stood immediately to the W. There is a record of a decorated face corbel (Davies 1946, 78) which could not be found.
A low earthen bank (int. H 0.2m; ext. H 0.9m) 21m to the E, a scarp (H 1.8m) down to the shore on the N and a slight bank to the W form an enclosure (LE002-015003-) (dims c. 45m E-W; c. 20-25m N-S) around the church but there is no evidence of burial. A small square building (LE002-015002-) (int. dims c. 3m x c. 3m) c. 15m SE of the church is represented by a single wall (H 2m) and a pile of rubble. The crannog (LE002-014001-) with the tower house (LE002-014002-) is c. 100m offshore. The S wall of the church fell in the autumn of 2016.

See the attached view from c. 1998 before the collapse of the wall _1, and an older view from the SW _2

The above description is derived from 'The Archaeological Inventory of County Leitrim' compiled by Michael J. Moore (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2003). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of revised upload: 16 December 2015
Amended: 31 January 2020

References

Gwynn, A. and Hadcock, R.N. 1970 (Reprint 1988) Medieval religious houses of Ireland. Dublin. Irish Academic Press.

Davies, O. 1946b Old churches in the parish of Rossinver, Co. Leitrim. Ulster Journal of Archaeology 2nd Series, 9, 76-9.