Church

The National Monuments Service's description

In pasture, on top of a rise with commanding views of the surrounding countryside and within an ecclesiastical enclosure (SL035-052004-). The roofless ruin of a rectangular church (ext. 17.5m E-W; 7.6m N-S) built of uncoursed limestone rubble bonded in a lime mortar. The walls have a slight batter and rest on a foundation plinth. No gables are evident and both end-walls stand to the same height as the side-walls. The interior is divided into two compartments by a cross-wall. At the E end (int. 10.95m E-W; 5.5m N-S) is the church, while at the W end is a smaller vaulted room (int. 5.5m N-S; 3.65m E-W). The entrance doorway is in the N wall, at the NW corner of the church; its surround has a cusped pointed arch with a chamfer, but its jambs are missing. The church is lit by three single-light windows, one each in the N, E and S walls. The light of the E window has an ogee-arch whilst the S window has a rounded arch. The lintelled doorway into the vaulted room is near the S end of its E wall. The room is covered by a rounded wicker-centred vault, and lit by a single-light window in its N and S walls. On the exterior of the S wall and just E of the window lighting the room, is a feature consisting of two close-set corbels arranged in the manner of a 'box machicolation' but which could be the base of a latrine chute (M. A. Timoney 2002b, 57). Lying on the ground outside the SW corner of the building is a collection of loose stones including one of the jambstones from the entrance doorway. The ruin is that of the late medieval parish church of Shancough. The church lies off-centre to the NW within a rectangular enclosure (65m NW-SE; 40m NE-SW) (SL035-052003-). This enclosure is defined by an earth and stone bank (int. H 0.4m; ext. H 0.85m) on the NW and SE sides and part of the NE side; elsewhere the remains of the bank are topped by a drystone wall. The NW, NE and SE sides are straight but the SW side kinks inwards at the W corner. There are numerous small breaks (Wth 0.8m to 1.1m) in the bank. Traces of internal and external revetment of limestone slabs are evident, especially on the NW and NE sides. The undulating interior is divided roughly in half by a NNE-SSW drystone wall incorporating the E gable of the church. A 'furnace bottom' was noted in this wall during a previous site inspection in 1993 (SMR (1989) file). This area may have functioned as a graveyard though no graveyard is named on the OS 6-inch maps and there is no evidence of burials. A souterrain (SL035-052002-) is located 31.5m to NNE of the church and another (SL035-052005-) is 50m to WNW.

The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Sligo' compiled by Ursula Egan, Elizabeth Byrne, Mary Sleeman with Sheila Ronan and Connie Murphy (Dublin Stationery Office, 2005).

Date of upload: 18 January 2008