Church

The National Monuments Service's description

The parish church of Taghmaconnell, listed as Taghmaconwell in the ecclesiastical taxation of Clonfert in 1306 (Cal. doc. Ire., vol. 5, 221), was under the patronage of St Ronan (O'Flanagan 1931, vol. 1, 24). The saint is thought to be Rónán, the founder of an early monastery at Aghalurcher, Co. Fermanagh (Foley and McHugh 2014, 1, 685-90), and was a bishop of Clogher diocese (Ó Riain 2011, 538). The church is situated on a slight rise in an undulating landscape. The church is a conserved rectangular structure (ext. dims 18m E-W; 8.3m N-S) surviving as the base of the walls except the S which is complete with a pointed doorway towards its W end, a simple rebuilt light towards the E end and an aumbry.
The base of a house or tower (RO051-053009-) (ext. dims 9.95m E-W; 8.35m N-S; H c. 2m) is attached to the W end of the church and is probably coeveal with it and would have been used as a priest's house. The tower has a rebuilt entrance in the S wall with a mural stairs rising to the E, to the destroyed wall-walk of the church. The ground floor has a light in the W wall and a projecting tower (ext. dims 5m E-W; 1.05m N-S) at the E end of the N wall, probably for a garderobe chute. There are holes for corbels in the N and W walls.
A graveslab (RO051-053004-) (dims 2.15m x 0.55-0.7m) with a cross in relief, possibly 17th-century in date, loose fragments of a tracery window (RO051-053005-), a circular font (RO051-053006-) (ext. diam. 0.51m; H 0.35m) with no perforation, the base of rotary quern (RO051-053007-) and two loose stoups are in the church. A memorial stone (RO051-053011-) (dims 1.4m x 0.6m; T 0.1m) within the church, which has an illegible English inscription in relief arranged in four panels, might be 17th century in date.
The church is within a subrectangular graveyard (RO051-053002-) (dims c. 50m N-S; c. 30-35m E-W) defined by masonry walls and extending mostly to the N of the church where there are numerous grave-markers. A fragment of a cross-inscribed stone (RO051-053008-) was found in the graveyard but is now missing (SMR file). The featureless N gable of a single storey house (RO051-053010-) (L 6.52m NW-SE; T 0.6m), perhaps 17th or 18th century in date and pre-dating the graveyard wall, is outside the graveyard at SE. St Ronan's Well (RO051-072001-) is c. 900m to the SW. The church and graveyard were conserved in 1993 (Moore 2000, 99).

See the attached image of the church doorway.

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of revised upload: 19 November, 2015

References

Cal. doc. Ire. - Calendar of documents relating to Ireland 1171-1307, ed. H.S. Sweetman (5 vols., London, 1875-86).

Moore, M. (ed.) c. 2000 Taughmaconnell, a history. Athlone. The Taughmaconnell historical and heritage group.

SMR file - Sites and monuments record files in the National Monuments Service, Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.

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.

Foley, C. and McHugh, R. 2014 The Archaeological Survey of County Fermanagh. Belfast. Northern Ireland Environment Agency