Church

The National Monuments Service's description

On a level, low-lying landscape but it was probably on an island in bog at one time. It is possibly an early church site dedicated to St Bridget, according to J. O'Donovan writing in the 1830s (O'Flanagan 1931, vol. 1, 28) and may have been a chapel-of-ease to St. Peter’s Athlone. Cluain Emhain is listed in a 15th century document (O'Donovan 1843, 79). Described as St Bridget's Nunnery and depicted as a small building (dims c. 10m E-W; c. 5m N-S) in the graveyard (RO055-003004-) attached to the Roman Catholic church on the 1837 ed. of the OS 6-inch map. The cluster of houses around the church is surrounded by a circular field system suggesting an oval ecclesiastical enclosure (RO055-003005-) (dims c. 200m E-W; c. 160m N-S) on the 1837 and 1915 eds of the OS 6-inch map, which survives as stone walls and hedgerows SE-SW. A modern cross commemorates the graveyard (dims c. 35m E-W; c. 20m N-S) defined by masonry walls, which is preserved as a green just E of the old Roman Catholic church, but there is no evidence of a structure within it. A fragment of a cross-slab (RO055-003003-) (dims 0.3m x 0.15m) was found in a wall of the old church and is now preserved in the entrance porch of the new church (Fanning and O hEailidhe 1980, 13; Herity et al. 1997, 116). Archaeological testing (00E0780; 07E0869) within the possible ecclesiastical enclosure failed to produce any related archaeological material (Crumlish 2002; Gleeson 2010), but testing (11E0360) c. 50m outside the enclosure to the NW produced evidence of metal-working (RO055-003006-) (Quinn 2011). St Bridget's Well (RO055-004----) is c. 200m to the NE.

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 15 February 2011

References

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.

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.

O'Donovan, J. (ed. and trans.) 1843 The tribes and customs of Hy-Many, commonly called O'Kelly's country, now first published from the Book of Lecan, a manuscript in the library of the Royal Irish Academy. Dublin.

Quinn, B. 2011 Archaeological assessment. Cloonown Community Project. Licence No. 11E0360. Unpublished report, Moore Group.

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.

Crumlish, R. 2002 Cloonown, Oldtown: no archaeological significance. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 2000: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 294, No. 862. Bray. Wordwell.

Gleeson, C. 2010 Cloonown: post-medieval. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 2010: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 410, No. 1488. Dublin. Wordwell.