Religious house - Augustinian, of Arrouaise nuns

The National Monuments Service's description

This is an early ecclesiastical site, and a community of nuns at St Mary's. Cloonoghil, may have been affiliated with Clonmacnoise from its foundation but had been transferred to Kilcreevanty (GA029-096001-) by 1223 and was impropriate to it at the Suppression (Moore 1969, Hall 2003, 78, 2009). It is listed as Clonagaley in the ecclesiastical taxation of Elphin in 1306 (Cal. doc. Ire. vol. 5, 223). As a suppressed monastery its property was granted to the Earl of Clanrickard in 1570, and to the Bishop of Tuam in 1618, but the church was described as ruinous in 1641 when the bishop is recorded as owning 767 acres at Cloonlawhill, which he retained into the 1660s (Simington 1949, 103). (Moore 1969)
The church is situated on a broad hill in a low-lying landscape and consists of a rectangular scrub-covered structure (int. dims 10m WNW-ESE; 5.45m NNE-SSW) of which only the N and S walls survive. The doorway, now reduced to single jamb-stones, is towards the W end of the S wall and a single light window with dressed ingoings towards the E end of the S wall is obscured by ivy. A limestone grave-slab (RO051-061010-) (L 1.95m) with a cross in low relief is almost buried within the church. The burial ground (RO051-061002-) is a rectangular platform (dims 35.7m NNE-SSW; 23.8m WNW-ESE; H 0.5-1.4m) NE of the church with uninscribed grave-markers, and is locally known as a children’s burial ground (RO051-061003-) (Gannon 1972), possibly because it is described as 'Caltragh' on the 1837 ed. of the OS 6-inch map.
The church and burial ground are within a large grass and scrub-covered ecclesiastical enclosure (RO051-061007-) (dims c. 135m NW-SE; c. 120m NE-SW) defined by a stone spread (at S: Wth 4.5-6m; int. H 0.6m; ext. H 0.8m), which is absent at NE and disturbed by quarrying at SW. The interior of the enclosure is divided into small plots (RO051-061006-) (dims 10m x 10m to 20m x 50m) defined by stone spreads with other plots attached externally. Outside the ecclesiastical enclosure, particularly to the S and W, is a system of rectangular fields (RO051-061009-) covering about 55 acres (c. 22 ha) which includes the ecclesiastical enclosure. A roadway (RO051-061008-) (Wth 3.5m) with earthen banks (Wth 3-3.8m; int. H 0.7m; ext. H 1.2m) on either side runs NW (L c. 150m) from the church to a pond and then turns W and SW (L c. 100m).

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 24 August 2010

References

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

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

Simington, R.C. (ed.) 1949 Books of survey and distribution. County of Roscommon. Dublin. Stationery Office.

Moore, A. 1969 The cell of the cannonesses regular of St Augustine at Cloonoghil. Journal of the Old Athlone Society 1 (1), 15-17.

Hall, D. 2003 Women and the church in medieval Ireland, c. 1140-1540. Four Courts Press. Dublin.