Church

The National Monuments Service's description

The following description is derived from both the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Louth' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1986) and the 'Archaeological Survey of County Louth' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1991). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.
Date of upload/revision: 17 July 2007

The church is almost entirely levelled with only the E gable in any way complete. It contains the remains of a large window which has a two-centred arch of moulded sandstone springing from decorated imposts. The jamb stones are also of sandstone, are chamfered and contain glazing grooves. The wall is constructed of poorly coursed blocks and boulders of limestone and greywacke. There is a small rectangular ope immediately above the centre of the arch. There are no remains to indicate the number of lights in the window and there is no evidence of tracery. Some of the sandstone blocks clearly show the remains of diagonal tooling, indicating that the building is early medieval. According to Ware (Brooks 1953, 63-4) it was founded c. 1206 and was the hospital priory of St Lawrence and Martyr. A gargoyle (LH024-030005-) lying beside the N wall of the mortuary chapel may have belonged to the church. In the N return of the E gable there is a fragment of limestone (0.44m by 0.40m by 0.24m) which is thought by King (CLAJ 1984, 334-9) to be part of a market cross (LH024-030004-) and could be of late medieval date. There is a portion of a large granite memorial slab (LH024-030003-) with a date of 1613 lying on the ground immediately to the S of the standing remains. It has a cross with a stepped base and crosslets on the arms. There is a skull and cross- bones in each of the upper angles of the cross, and scrolls and triangles near its broken base. There is lettering and the date around the remaining margin of the slab (CLAJ 1945, 25).