Religious house - Augustinian canons

The National Monuments Service's description

This is an early ecclesiastical site traditionally founded by St Faithlec, reputedly a son of Fionnlugh, whose name is a synonym of the pagan god, Lug (Ó Riain 2011,302, 337-8). Its early history is not recorded, but Cluain Tuascairt na Sinna was refounded as an Augustinian Arroasian priory by Turlough O'Conor after 1140 and barely survived until the end of the 16th century with a the leper hospital of Erenagh (RO036-052---*) attached. In 1410 it was so poor that indulgences were granted to garner support (Gwynn and Hadcock 1988, 165-6, 355). Its coarb from the O' Meehan clan inaugurated the kings of Hy Many, according to J. O'Donovan writing in the 1830s. According to an inquisition in 1569 the abbey was then a ruin but the church was parochial with a graveyard attached. The abbot possessed the town of Cloontuskert with eight cottages, Boalalege (Ballyleague) with a castle and six cottages, 400 acres, and the churches of Kilglass, Kilkehy (Kilgefin), and Kiltovan (Kilteevan) (O'Flanagan 1931, vol. 1, 48-50). The remains are situated on low-lying ground c. 1.5km W of the River Shannon, and c. 2.5km N of Lough Ree. The church remains are at the S end of an oval graveyard (RO037-001002-) (dims c. 100m N-S; c. 60m E-W) defined by a masonry wall.
The conserved and restored foundations (T 0.75-0.8m; H c. 1.3m) of a rectangular nave (int. dims 15m E-W; 5.1m N-S) with an entrance (Wth 1.05m) towards the W end of the N wall and window embrasures in the W wall and the S wall opposite the doorway survive. The S wall of the chancel (L 6.7m; H 2m) has a window embrasure, but the E window of the chancel, described as 'lofty and grand' (Grose 1791, vol. 2, 20-1), does not survive. The base of the walls of the E range (int. dims c. 21m N-S; 5.4m E-W) together with parts of what are probably the N wall of the N range and the E wall of the W range, leaving an area (dims c. 15m N-S; 13.5m E-W) N of the church where the cloister may have been.
At least eighteen stones with inscribed crosses have been recorded up to 2008, but some of these are missing. Five have been recorded by Fanning and O'hEailidhe (1980, 10, 13-15), one of which is now missing. Two others were recorded by Siggins (1988, 56-7) and six other simpler cross-inscribed stones were described by Herity (et al. 1997, 116-7). Other stones have since come to light, and most of the displayed stones are set in the walls of a rectangular enclosure with an altar at the W edge of the graveyard. In all six cross-slabs and eleven other cross-inscribed stones have been recorded in this display. There are also numerous architectural fragments (RO037-001017-) from a high medieval church on display here and in the church ruin as well as decorative pieces from an earlier structure. Most of the decorated stones were recovered from the graveyard in a clean-up c. 1990, at which time others were displayed around a stile in the graveyard wall at N. These have been identified recently by Gary Dempsey, and amongst the dressed stones he has recorded are portions of four cross-slabs and five cross-inscribed stones. There is a bullaun stone on top of the graveyard wall at this stile.

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of revised upload: 9 September 2015

References

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.

Siggins, A. 1988 Some early Christian slabs from Fuerty and Clontuskert. Journal of the County Roscommon Historical and Archaeological Society 2, 55-9.

Herity, M., Kelly, D. and Mattenberger, U. 1997 List of Early Christian cross-slabs in seven north-western counties. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 127, 89-124.

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

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

Fanning, T. and Ó hÉailidhe, P. 1980 Some cross-inscribed slabs from the Irish Midlands. In H. Murtagh (ed.), Irish Midland studies: essays in commemoration of N.W. English, 5-23. Athlone. Old Athlone Society.