Church

The National Monuments Service's description

Early Christian foundation founded by St. Barrind in the sixth century (Purser 1918, 74-7). Located on low-lying land with river to the S, esker ridge to the N and E with motte (OF036-028004-) to the NW. Long rectangular church (ext. dims. 7.85m N-S; 28.8m E-W; wall T 1m) built of roughly coursed sandstone blocks with base batter evident at W end of N wall only. The W gable and W portion of the S wall survive to full height with wall foundations surviving elsewhere. Partially destroyed window and doorway at W end of S wall. Poorly preserved window on W gable at first floor level. Barrel vaulted chamber at W end of church (7.85m N-S; 3.5m N-S) with doorway in E wall giving access to a stone stairways which leads to first floor level. There are several fragments of window mouldings and other architectural pieces lying outside the E end of the church. On top of the W end of the S wall there is a single stone from a Romanesque arch decorated with a chevron design in false relief at the end of which there is a spiral decoration which may have joined onto a decorated capital. The other end of the stone is chamfered in order to accommodate the next stone of the arch which unfortunately is missing. There is an upright Early Christian cross-slab (OF036-028005-) located to the SE of the church with incised double lined cross with bifurcating terminals. Circular high cross base (OF036-028003-) with mortise and tenon socket illustrated by Purser (1918, 74-7) along with head of ringed cross are that all that survives of a high cross located between the W gable of the church and the graveyard wall. The ringed cross is decorated with interlace patterns with a crucifixion on one side and a triskele on the other (Purser 1918, 178). The cross-head has been recently removed from the graveyard (OF036-028002-) by Offaly County Council for safety concerns and is now on public display inside Rath R. C. Church (OF031-072----). The graveyard (OF036-028002-) contains 18th/19th-century headstones and is enclosed by a modern stone wall. (Cooke 1875, 154-6; O' Flanagan 1933, vol. 2, 51)

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: 23 May 2011

References

Purser, O. 1918 Fragment of a Celtic cross found at Drumcullin, Kings County. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 48, 74-7.

Cooke, T.L. 1875 The early history of the town of Birr. Dublin. Robertson.

O'Flanagan, Rev. M. (Compiler) 1933 Letters containing information relative to the antiquities of the King's County collected during the progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1839. Bray.