Church

The National Monuments Service's description

At the outer edge of a shelf towards the bottom of a S-facing slope, overlooking a bog to the SE and on the S side of the NE-SW Bellanagare to Castlerea road. A rectangular platform (dims 7.6m E-W; 4.5m N-S; H 0.4m) which may be rock-outcrop or the foundations of a structure is at the apex of a D-shaped ecclesiastical enclosure (RO021-022012-) (dims 48m NW-SE; 33m NE-SW) defined by a fosse (Wth of top 7.7m; Wth of base 3.5m; int. D 0.6m; ext. D 0.4m) SE-S, which merges into a scarp (H 0.3m) S-SW. The enclosure is cut by a NW-SE road at E and a NE-SW road at N and does not survive beyond these features. There is a tradition of its use as a children’s burial ground (RO021-022009-) and as a graveyard (RO021-022010-) (Knox 1902a, 188-9), but there is no evidence of burial. There is a rough-out for a quernstone (RO021-022011-) at the site, and holy well (RO021-022001-) is c. 20m N of the church on the other side of the NE-SW road.
The basin (diam. 0.3m; D 0.1m) of a bullaun stone (RO021-022003-), serving as the holy well (RO021-022001-), is set in the ground at the centre of an overgrown penitential cairn (RO021-022004-) (dims c. 5.5m E-W; c. 4m N-S; H c. 1m). A roofless drystone-built passage (Wth 1m; H 0.8m) leads to the bullaun stone from the W. A stone penal-style cross (RO021-022013-) (H 0.48m; Span 0.2m; T 0.1m) is set on the cairn over the bullaun stone, and a rectangular slab (RO021-022014-) (dims 0.22m x 0.21m; T 0.06m) with crosses incised on both faces is nearby. At the W edge of the cairn is a hollow ash tree (RO021-022002-) (Circumference 6.7m), known as St Patrick's Walking Stick. The rough-out of a millstone (RO021-022007-) (diam. 0.8m; T 0.2m) which has a central unfinished and flat-bottomed perforation (diam. 0.37m; D 0.05m) is nearby. This has sometimes been mistaken for another bullaun stone (RO021-022006-). Knox (1902a, 188-9) describes a building (RO021-022005-) on the N side of the cairn, which may have been a church (RO021-022008-) but which cannot be seen now.

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of revised upload: 3 July 2015

References

Knox, H.T. 1902c Miscellanea - Bullauns, forming two of St. Patrick's Wells in Connaught. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 32, 188-90.