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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Church

Newtownstalaban (ferrard By; Tullyallen Par), County Louth, Ireland

The record

Townland
Newtownstalaban (ferrard By; Tullyallen Par)
County
Louth
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Ruins
Latest-edition OS map
Church (in Ruins)
Coordinates
53.72525, -6.30915
SMR number
LH025-003001-

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Shown on 4 historical map sheets, the earliest the 1636 "Vltoniae Orientalis Pars" (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).

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The National Monuments Service's description

Located at the E end of a low ENE-WSW ridge. This is probably the parish church of a detached part of Tullyallen parish. The name ‘Teach Liobáin’ is derived from St Libhear, who succeeded St Cainneach or Canice as abbot at the sixth century monastery of Aghaboe (LA022-019001-) (Ó Riain 2011, 396-7). The name is attested in a charter of Mellifont abbey (LH023-027002-) in 1203 (Garry 1977, 59-60), and the abbey still held land at Stalebon at the suppression in 1540 (White 1943, 215). The church is not mentioned in that inquisition, so it might already have been derelict, and it is described as a ruin on Taylor and Skinner’s map of County Louth in 1778. Featureless portions of the E and W gables of a simple rectangular church (max. dims 10m x 5m) survive. There is no evidence of a doorway in the W gable which may indicate that it was a late medieval church. A stoup which had been kept nearby at Newtown House and is now in the Millmount Museum (LH024-04119-) is probably from this church (Campbell 2019).

The above 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: 17 July 2007

Amended: 30 December 2020

White, N.B. 1943 Extents of Irish monastic possessions, 1540-1541. Dublin. Irish Manuscripts Commission.

Ó Riain, P. 2011 A dictionary of Irish Saints. Dublin. Four Courts Press.

Garry, J. 1970 Tombstone Inscriptions in Newtownstalaban Graveyard. County Louth Archaeological and Historical Society Journal, 17, 2, 87-90.

Campbell, K. 2019 A Medieval Holy Water Stoup from Newtownstalaban, County Louth. County Louth Archaeological and Historical Journal, 29, 3, 335-9.

Garry, J. 1977 Townland Survey of County Louth: Newtownstalaban. County Louth Archaeological and Historical Society Journal, 19, 1, 59-66.

Nearby in the register

Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.

Sites and Monuments Record data: National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Record text is reproduced unchanged. National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland · CC BY 4.0
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