Church

The National Monuments Service's description

This was the Church of Ireland parish church of Castlerea from 1703 to 1819 when Trinity Church, now a heritage centre, was built c. 200m to the S (Trohy 1994; Wall 1994). It is situated on the S bank of the ESE-WNW Francis River in Castlerea town. It is a nave and chancel church with N and S transepts. The nave (int. dims c. 10m E-W; 6.1m N-S), whose W wall and adjacent parts of the N and S walls do not survive has a single window embrasure in the long walls (H 3.4m). The chancel (int. dims 5.4m E-W; 2.9m N-S) has a round-headed window (Wth 1.18m; H 3m) with flanking lights (Wth 0.54m; H 2.05m) in the E wall and a robbed doorway at the E end of the N wall. The N and S transepts (int. dims 2.4m N-S at W to 4m N-S at E; 8.6m E-W) hardly survive and are featureless. The church is within a subrectangular graveyard (RO026-035002-) (dims 58m E-W; 45m N-S at W to 55m N-S at E) defined by masonry walls, and contains 19th and 20th century graves. Archaeological testing (03E1798) on the roadway E of the graveyard failed to produce any burials or related material (Fitzpatrick 2004, 13; 2006b).

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 24 August 2010

References

Wall, O. 1994 The foundation of Christianity in the parish of Kilkeevan (Castlerea). Journal of the Roscommon Historical Archaeological Society vol. 5, 54-7.

Fitzpatrick, M. A. 2004 Archaeological report on pre-development testing at Castlerea, Co. Roscommon. Licence No. 03E1798. Unpublished report: Arch Consultancy Ltd.

Trohy, A. 1994 Holy Trinity church (parish of Kilteevan, Castlerea). Journal of the Roscommon Historical and Archaeological Society, vol. 5, 18.

Fitzpatrick, M. 2006b Harristown, Castlerea: no archaeological significance. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 2003: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 419-20, No. 1557. Bray. Wordwell.