Religious house - Augustinian canons

The National Monuments Service's description

This is an early ecclesiastical site called Inchmacnerin with no historical references concerning its foundation or early history. It adopted the Augustinian rule when a priory of Augustinian canons, called St Mary's, was established here probably between 1140 and 1170. The death of Muiredach O'Gormley, the prior, is recoded in 1229, but there are no further references. The site continued until the 1590s when it was described a a church and two ruined houses (Gwynn and Hadcock 1988, 179). It is at the centre of Church Island (diam. c. 150m) at the SW angle of Lough Key, c. 350m from the W shore.

The remains consist of an early church (RO006-006001-) which was extended to the E in the 13th century together with the foundations of E, S and W ranges, of which little remains. around a cloister S of the church. The buildings were enclosed in a rectangular enclosure (dims 36m N-S; 40m E-W) with drystone walls to the W and N of the church completing the enclosure, while a saint's tomb (RO006-006002-) is just N of the E end of the extended church, and a children's burial ground (RO006-006003-) was added after the Suppression outside the W gable of the church.

The original church (ext. dims 8.1m N-S; at least 15m E-W) is composed of cyclopean masonry and has a complete W gable with a trabeate doorway (Wth 0.67-0.73m; H 1.56m) dating to the tenth or eleventh century. There is an inserted doorway (Wth 0.78m) in the N wall, of which only the jambs survive (H c. 1m). A destroyed opening in the S wall may have had a similar doorway. The church was extended to the E (max. ext. dim. 30m E-W), but only a section of the N wall with a single lancet window that has an external rebate survives. Grose (1791, Pl. 78), whose illustration was made by Beranger or Bigari in 1779 (Wilde 1870-1, 138-9), shows part of the E wall of the early church extant and a doorway at the E end of the S wall of the extended nave.

Five meters N of the E end of the extended church is a small saints shrine (RO006-006002-) visible as a masonry structure (ext. dims 4.75m E-W; 2.45m N-S) surviving as foundations with a round-headed window embrasure (Wth 0.3m; H 0.85m) in the W gable. The doorway was at the W end of the S wall. Excavation (King 2002; 2004; 2007) recovered the remains of two inhumations inside together with evidence of a stone roof. Carbon 14 determinations between AD 1021-1216 to 2 sigma calibration were obtained from the burials.

The E, S and W ranges of the Augustinian priory survive as wall footings or cairn material around a rectangle (dims 14.7m N-S; 12.6m E-W) to the S of the nave, which must have been the cloister. N of the saints grave is a cairn (RO006-006004-) (diam. 7m; H 0.3-0.6m) with a hollow (diam. 1.6m; D 0.6-1m) which may have been a well.

This is a National Monument in state guardianship: No. 557

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 24 August 2010

References

Wilde, Sir W.W. 1870-78 Memoir of Gabriel Beranger, and his labours in the cause of Irish art, literature, and antiquities from 1760 to 1780, with illustrations. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Vol. 11, 33-64, 121-52, 236-60, vol. 12, 445-85, Vol. 14, 111-56.

King, H. 2004 Church Island: medieval tomb shrine. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 2002: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 452, No. 1594. Bray. Wordwell.

King, H. 2007 A medieval ‘Chapel Shrine' on Church Island, Lough Key, Co. Roscommon. In C. Manning (ed.), From ringforts to fortified houses, 353-386. Dublin. Wordwell .

King, H. 2002 Church Island, Lough Key, medieval tomb shrine. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 2000: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 294, No. 860. Bray. Wordwell.

Grose, F. 1791 The antiquities of Ireland, 2 vols. London. S. Hooper.

Gwynn, A. and Hadcock, R.N. 1970 (Reprint 1988) Medieval religious houses of Ireland. Dublin. Irish Academic Press.