Church

The National Monuments Service's description

In woodland on the estate of Castle Forbes, c. 500m to the SE of the river Shannon. A disused graveyard (LF008-011003-) lies to the SE. A report in 1944 (ITA Survey) records that this church was thought to have been the parish church of Clonguish/Clongesh and that it may have been founded by St Ailither, the patron saint of the parish. In 1412 Cornelius Offergaill was appointed to the perpetual vicarage of 'St. Hilary's, Cluaingessi' (Cal. papal letters 1904, vol. 6, 369). It is depicted on an early 17th-century map of Longford barony (BL, Cotton MS Augustus I.ii.24) and is recorded on the terrier of the Down Survey (1655-6) map of Clongesh parish as 'on the Gleebe of Clongish the Ruines of a Church' (NLI, MS 713). This late-medieval church (ext. dims. 19.2m E-W; 8.16m N-S) is constructed of random rubble. Both gable walls and the side-walls survive to their original heights. The doorway, at the W end of the S wall, and the window heads are 19th-century insertions. Within the interior at W is a font and a burial crypt occupies the E end of the church. There is a bullaun stone (LF008-011002-) outside the doorway.

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 4 June 2013

References

NLI, MS 719 - National Library of Ireland, The parish maps of the Down Survey of Co. Longford attested by W. Petty under date 1657. Copied by Daniel O'Brien. A set of 22 maps with accompanying terriers, 1786-7. Dublin.

British Library, Cotton Manuscripts, Augustus I. Charts of the baronies of Granard, Rathcline, Longford, Ardagh, Shrule and Moydow, County Longford. London. (microfilm, NLI p. 1364)

Irish Tourist Association. Surveys undertaken in the 1940s for the Irish Tourist Association (now Fáilte Ireland) relating to ‘Natural features, antiquities, historic associations etc.' Extracts from these surveys were copied into the Topographical files of the Office of Public Works and these have been incorporated into the Sites and Monuments Record files (National Monuments Service).

Cal. papal letters - Calendar of entries in the papal registers relating to Great Britain and Ireland: papal letters, 1198-1484 [etc.] (London, 1893-)