Church

The National Monuments Service's description

: Marked on the 1837 ed. of the OS 6-inch map as a rectangular structure (dims c. 15m E-W) where it is described in gothic lettering as a chapel. It is situated at the crest of the N-facing slope of broad plateau and just E of the present Roman Catholic church. Described as the site of an ancient chapel (OS Name Book), it is known locally as the site of a post-Penal Roman Catholic church of c. 1783 when the French family of Lowberry (RO032-054----) provided an acre of ground (McGuire 2019, 135). The church was a ruin by 1833, according to the parish priest, Rev. Thomas Feeney, who was then collecting funds for the present church that was built by 1862. While a cairn (RO032-015003-) was evident in the modern graveyard (RO032-015002-) (dims c. 90m N-S; c. 70m E-W) (Gannon 1972), it was probably cairn material from this chapel and has since been removed. The bullaun stone (RO032-015004-) (dims 0.4m x 0.4m; H 0.22m) with a single basin (dims 0.3m x 0.25m; D 0.1m) from the children’s burial ground at Ballyrane Upper (RO032-016003-) is now in the present church.

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 24 August 2010

References

McGuire, K. 2019 In the footsteps of O’Donovan and O’Flyn: settlement and religious practice in the parish of KIiltullagh from 1828 to 1858. Journal of the Roscommon Historical and Archaeological Society, vol. 14, 132-8.

OSNB 25-inch. Ordnance Survey Name Books compiled in the course of the 1:2500 survey of Ireland. National Archives of Ireland.

Gannon, A. 1972 Archaeological survey of Roscommon. Unpublished typed index cards prepared for Roscommon County Council.