Church

The National Monuments Service's description

On a gentle SE-facing slope, within the E half of a graveyard (LF024-007002-). In 1593 John Lye was granted a 21 year lease of the 'church of Agherie' (Nicholls 1994, vol. 3, 218). Depicted on an early 17th-century map of Shrule barony (BL, Cotton MS Augustus I.ii.26) as the church of 'Lissevarrow'. Two phases of construction are evident in this church (ext. dims. 18.15m E-W; 7m N-S). The earlier phase dates to the early medieval period and comprises the W half of the church (ext. dims. 9.85m E-W; wall T 0.85m) where cyclopean masonry, similar in style to the churches at Ardagh (LF019-050001-) and Cloondara (LF013-018----), is evident. Access is gained via a lintelled doorway in the W gable. High up in the N and S walls are broken out windows. The E window has been blocked up and a doorway that was subsequently inserted into the wall gives access to a late-medieval extension (L 8.3m; wall T 0.95m) that must have served as a chancel. Its E gable wall has a marked base-batter and contains a single-light, 16th-century window. In the S wall, close to the E gable, are two aumbries and a small, flat-headed, single-light window.
In the N wall, at the W end of chancel, a relieving arch indicates the former presence of a doorway that was subsequently blocked up. (ITA Survey 1944; Leask 1955, vol. 1, 58)

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 4 June 2013

References

Leask, H.G. 1955 (Reprint 1977 and 1987) Irish churches and monastic buildings, vol. I. The first phases of the Romanesque. Dundalk. Dundalgan Press.

Nicholls, K.W. (ed.) 1994 The Irish fiants of the Tudor sovereigns during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Philip & Mary, and Elizabeth I, 4 vols. Dublin. Éamonn de Búrca for Edmund Burke Publisher.

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).