Church

The National Monuments Service's description

The ruins of Ballygrennan Church standing on the S die of the Morningstar River in the parish of Uregare was described in 1840 as following; 'in the vicinity of the Town of Bruff, are the ruins of an old Church said traditionally to have been built by George Evans who came to Ireland with Prince William and who occupied the Castle of Ballygrennan (LI040-007----). The present length of this Church from east to west is nineteen feet three inches (5.8m) and its breadth twenty one feet [6.4m], but the west gable as well as the upper portion of the north wall seems a more modern erection. The entire building indeed, has a comparatively modern appearance. On the east gable there is a large pointed window, now nearly filled up with stone work. On the west gable, the upper part of which is broken, there is a round-arched doorway seven feet high [2.1m] by three feet seven inches [2.2m]. On the north wall near the east end there is a quadrangular doorway, now filled up with masonry except a small portion of the upper part on the east side, where this stone work is broken. The walls of this Church are about seventeen feet high [5.2m], two feet seven and a half inches [0.7m] in thickness and built externally of regular sized stones cemented with lime and sand mortar. The internal part of the building is composed principally of brickwork. The eastern end is enclosed to a certain height as a burial place belonging to the Evans family; there are no persons interred here now except members of this family' (OSL, 38-9).
Westropp (1904-5, 432) recorded the following details about Ballygrennan Church; 'A late church said to have been built by George Evans after 1690. It is 19 feet 3 inches [5.8m] by 21 feet [6.4m] ; had a pointed east window, an oblong south window, and a round-arched south door (OSL, 8, p. 107).

See attached drawing of north church doorway taken from OS letters

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 26 April 2019

References

Westropp, T.J. 1904-5 A survey of the ancient churches of Co. Limerick. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 25C, 327-479.

OSL - Ordnance Survey Letters. Letters written by members of the Ordnance Survey's 'Topographical Department' (T. O'Conor, A. O'Curry, E. Curry, J. O'Donovan and P. O'Keeffe) sent to headquarters from the field (1834-41). MSS in Royal Irish Academy.