Religious house - Franciscan friars

The National Monuments Service's description

Associated with St. Sinchell who founded a monastery here in the sixth century. The church and convent marked on the OS 6-inch map are the same buildings which represent the remains of a large Franciscan Abbey formerly the site of an Augustinian Priory (OF025-017003-) which is today incorporated into a guest house (OF025-030----) and a C of I church. The site has undergone many alterations as can be seen from the different stonework throughout the site which suggests that the abbey may originally have been a 12th-century Augustinian priory. The Abbey now consists of a main Church which is today used by the Church of Ireland as a place of worship which has been shortened on its E end. Evidence of a large E window probably of the triple light lancet type at the E end of the Abbey is now incorporated into the graveyard wall. From a drawing in 1896 the church had a central belfry tower and a S transept off the W end of the S wall of which today there are no remains. There is a barrel vaulted chapter house at the E end of the N wall of the Abbey with later doorway and mural stairways which gives access to the floor above chapter house with several musket loops visible on the E wall and possible garderobe chute in NE angle. The chapter house (int. dims. 12.2m E-W; 5.15m N-S; wall T 1.2m) has a cobblestone floor with 3 engaged columns of varying profiles on the N and S walls with a large partially destroyed round arched window in the E wall. The barrel vault along with the inner half of the N wall are a later insertion of probable 15th-century date. The E window of the chapter house has late 12th/13th-century jambs with a later medieval arch which was probably altered during the insertion of the barrel vault. Above the W wall of the sacristy can still be seen the string course of the ambulatory which enclosed the cloister area which was located to the N of the main church. Domestic buildings located around this cloister area are now the site of outhouses with a central well which is now blocked up. The guest house known as the Abbey (OF025-030----) is a late medieval house with several late medieval ogee headed windows visible. Architectural fragments now housed inside the chapter house display a wide range in date from the 12th-century to the late medieval period. Early Christian cross-slab also located inside the chapter house. To the SW are the remains of an earthwork marked on the OS 6-inch map as 'Entrenchment' which may represent a medieval fortification of the site (1550 Survey) or perhaps the remains of an Early Christian enclosure (OF025-017011-). The earthwork consists of two earthen banks with intervening wide flat bottomed fosse similar to the earthworks enclosing the Abbey at Seir Kieran (OF039-003----). Graveyard (OF025-017004-) to the S contains 17th/19th-century headstones. This evidence indicates continued ecclesiastical settlement from the Early Christian period to the present. (Comerford 1883, 190-2; Cooke 1875, 256; Fitzgerald 1918-22, 23-32; O' Flanagan 1933, vol. 1, 23; Hadcock 1964, 128; Sheehy 1969 vol. 14, 2-3)

In 1991 four trial trenches in an area to the N of the Fair Green on the N side of the main road (NGR 236764/218313) through the village of Killeigh were opened by Helen Keogh for ADS Ltd, but nothing of archaeological interest was noted in any of them, any disturbance noted being of modern date.

In 1995 pre-development testing at the site of a proposed dwelling house extension was undertaken in January 1995 by Dominic Delany under licence no. 95E15. The site is located on the north side of the village fairgreen (NGR 236721/218328) about 150m north-east of the present Protestant church, which incorporates fragmentary remains of a 12th-century Augustinian abbey. No archaeological deposits or features were noted.

Archaeological testing was carried out in 1999 under licence no. 99E0348 by Dominic Delany. Test excavation was undertaken before an application for open planning permission for four detached dwellings. Two test-trenches, 65-90m long and 1.8m wide, were mechanically excavated at locations corresponding to the general footprint of the proposed development. A 5-7m-wide spread of compacted, silty sand was encountered at the south-east ends of the two trenches. This feature is orientated north-east/south-west and may represent levelled bank material and/or the upper fill of a large ditch. It is significant that this feature is aligned with the earthwork and the curving field boundary in the field to the west of the site. This strongly suggests that it is part of the enclosing element associated with the ecclesiastical remains at Killeigh. Two post-medieval features-a large, irregular spread of grey/brown, silty sand and an oval pit-were also encountered in Trench 2. The pit (2.5m north-south by 0.95m) contained a fill of light grey/brown, silty sand, and the finds included green glass wine bottle fragments, clay pipe stem fragments and several sherds of late/post-medieval pottery. A single sherd of Bellarmine pottery was recovered from the irregular spread. In 2000 a second phase of testing was carried out at this site. Nine trenches were excavated: two at each of three proposed house sites, and three on the line of the proposed service run. Following extensive testing it was established that the only definite archaeological features within the tested area are those that were discovered during the initial excavation. These comprise a portion of an ecclesiastical enclosure, which skirts the south-east end of the site, and two post-medieval features, which were discovered on the route of the proposed service road. Several possible archaeological features were tested. The results were inconclusive because no datable finds were recovered, but most appeared to be of post-medieval or modern date. The revised site layout plan provides for the exclusion of the enclosure element from the boundaries of the house sites, and the service road will be raised in order to minimise compaction of subsurface archaeological material.

Archaeological testing was carried out in 2002 under licence no. 02E1006 as part of the planning schedule for a three-house development near the Early Christian enclosure of Killeigh (SMR 25:17). Nine trenches were excavated by mechanical digger. No features or finds of archaeological significance were revealed.
John Purcell, Ballinvalley, Killeigh, Co. Offaly.

Test-trenching was carried out by John Purcell under licence no. 05E0916 as part of the planning schedule for the extension to a carpark within the zone of potential for the village of Killeigh. A series of trenches were excavated by mechanical digger. No features or finds of archaeological significance were revealed.
John Purcell, 17 Balmoral Terrace, Dillon's Cross, Cork.

The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Offaly' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1997). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Date of upload: 24 April 2009

References

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Curtis, E. 1930 The survey of Offaly in 1550. Hermathena 20, No. 45, 312-52. Dublin. Hodges Figgis, & Co.

Fitzpatrick, E 1998 The early church in Offaly. In Timothy O'Neill & William Nolan (eds), Offaly: history and society: interdisciplinary essays on the history of an Irish county, 93-129. Dublin: Geography Publications.