Church

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on a shelf on a N and E-facing slope, with a small S-N stream c. 75m to the E. This second church at Fenagh, sometimes known as the abbey church, is c. 130m NE of the larger church (LE025-096001-) but it was the parish chuch and was one of the churches of the rectory of Muinter Eolais after 1471 (Scully 2019, 134). It is rectangular (int. dims c. 19m E-W; c. 5.5m N-S) and divided into two with a barrel vault at the W end, probably to support a defensive accommodation tower. A mural stairs rises in the dividing wall to the first floor over the vault. At the ground floor there was a corridor attached externally to the S wall of the church, and doorways at the centre of the N and S walls. There are two small windows in the N wall and a cusped ogee-headed window in both the E and the W walls. The churches and the earthworks at Fenagh are National Monuments (Harbison 1996, 212).

See the attached view of the two churches with this church in the foreground _1
See the attached view from the Down Survey barony map (N at left) reproduced courtesy of the National Library of Ireland (Ms 717).

This monument is subject to a preservation order made under the National Monuments Acts 1930 to 2014 (PO no. 3/1994) and is also a National Monument in state ownership: No. 68

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 6 July, 2017
Amended: 10 January 2020

References

Harbison, P. 1970 Guide to the national monuments in the Republic of Ireland. Dublin. Gill and Macmillan.

Scully, S. 2019 Medieval parish churches in Muinter Eolais, south County Leitrim c. 1350-1600. In Kelly, L. and Scott, B. Leitrim: History and Society, 129-51. Dublin, Geography Publications