Church

The National Monuments Service's description

Located towards the bottom of a S-facing slope and on the N shore of Meelagh Lough. The church was granted to the Premostratensian abbey on Lough Key (RO006-036001-) c. 1215, but the Ó Duignean family were erenachs of what would already be an old site. It was dedicated to St Lasair and her father, Rónán, and it was her principal church (Ó Riain 2011, 393-4). The church was rebuilt in 1339 by Farrell Muimhneach O'Duigenan (AFM) as the parish church of Kilronan in Ardagh diocese. it was burnt the following year (ibid. 571) and rebuilt by Farrell in 1347 (AFM). Members of this family were associated with Kilronan throughout the Middle Ages (O'Flanagan 1931, vol. 1, 123-4), and it became the burial ground of this bardic family who maintained burial enclosures and vaults here into the 18th century under the patronage of Mac Dermot Roe of Alderford (Mc Garry 1988). Turlough O'Carolan, the harpist, was buried here in 1741, his skull being displayed in the church from 1757 until c. 1798, when it disappeared, although a putative skull is now in NMI (O'Sullivan D. 1945; O'Sullivan, W. 1958 vol. 1, 117-24). Situated towards the bottom of a steep S-facing slope c. 100m from the N shore of Lough Meelagh. (Weld 1832, 264-9; Hayward 1955, 190-3; Stalley 1991, 187-90)

Rectangular ivy-covered structure (int. dims 14.5m E-W; 7.2m N-S) of which the W wall does not survive, while the almost complete E wall (H c. 7m) has two tall lancet or trefoil-headed windows obscured with ivy. The N wall is largely reconstructed, but has an aumbry at its E end, and the Mac Dermotroe vault abuts the wall outside at the E end. There is a re-built round-headed Romanesque doorway (Wth 1.2m; H 1.8m), which is lacking imposts, at the W end of the S wall (Moss 2010, 141-4), and there are two large robbed window openings E of it. The doorway may be from an earlier church dating to the early 12th century. The church is within a rectangular graveyard (RO004-003002-) (dims. 73m E-W; 48m N-S) defined by a masonry wall, which has been extended to the E. St Lassar's Well (RO004-002002-) is c. 75m to the W and holy well (RO004-060----) is c. 270m to the NW.

See the attached view of the doorway.

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of revised upload: 9 March 2018

References

Stalley, R. (ed.) 1991 Daniel Grose (c. 1766–1838). The antiquities of Ireland, a supplement to Francis Grose. Dublin. The Irish Architectural Archive.

Weld, I. 1832 Statistical survey of the county Roscommon. Dublin, Royal Dublin Society

Moss, R. 2010 Romanesque sculpture in north Roscommon. In T. Finan (ed.), Medieval Lough Cé.119-144. Dublin. Four Courts Press.

O'Flanagan, Rev. M. (Compiler) 1931 Letters containing information relative to the antiquities of the county of Roscommon collected during the progress of the
Ordnance Survey in 1837. Bray.

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

O'Sullivan, D. 1945a Carolan's Skull. Journal of the Ardagh and Clonmacnoise Archaeological Society 2 (10), 17-25.

Hayward, R. 1955 This is Ireland, Mayo, Sligo, Leitrim and Roscommon. London. Arthur Barker.

AFM - Annals of the kingdom of Ireland by the Four Masters from the earliest period to the year 1616, ed. and trans. John O'Donovan (7 vols., Dublin, 1851; reprint New York, 1966)

O'Sullivan, W. 1958 The Strafford Inquisition of County Mayo. Dublin: Stationery Office for the Irish Manuscripts Commission.

Mc Garry, J. 1988 Kilronan. Journal of the Roscommon Historical and Archaeological Sociiety, vol. 2, 15-6. (1)