Ecclesiastical site

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on a slight rise of ground in the centre of Terryglass village. An early Christian monastery was founded in Terryglass by St Columb (Colum Mac Cremthainn) in the sixth century (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 45). Columb died around AD 552 (Ann. Inisf., 552). The church of Tirdaglassoe contributed three marks in the taxation of the diocese in 1302-7 (Cal. doc. Ire., 302). The Royal Visitation of 1615 described the church as having a 'covered chancell' (Murphy 1914, 221) but there is no mention of the church itself in the Civil Survey of 1654-6 where it only mentions the 'church yard of Tirraglasse' (Simington 1931, 311). According to local tradition the site of the monastery lies in the present church and graveyard (Carey and Farrelly 1994, 78). The ecclesiastical complex consists of a church (TN006-003003-), a graveyard (TN006-003008-) and a holy well (TN006-003005-), all of which are situated within a possible ecclesiastical enclosure. Also sited within this possible enclosure are a bawn wall (TN006-003004-) immediately E of the church and graveyard and a linear earthwork (TN006-003006-) to the N. The ecclesiastical enclosure (diam. approx. 460m E-W, 450m N-S) is defined by an earth and stone bank (Wth 0.3-2m, ext. H 0.2-1.5m) and a stone wall from N to ENE only where it is preserved as a townland boundary. The E portion of the enclosure can be traced by a field boundary which curves S and become the townland boundary between Carrownaglogh and Crossanagh. Elsewhere the enclosure is destroyed and is only visible as a cropmark (except from WNW to N) on aerial photographs (Swan 1983, 270). It is bisected by a modern roadway on a NE-SW axis and by a small river on a N-S axis.
The church (int. dims. L 12.6m N-S; 9.4m E-W; wall T 0.78m) lies in the graveyard immediately SE of the former St Columba's Protestant church. Only the N and W walls and the possible remains of the E wall survive albeit in a much modified form (Carey and Farrelly 1994, 79). The walls are constructed from roughly coursed rubble limestone some of which are cyclopean in appearance supported by an external plinth. In 1840 the church was in poor condition, only the pointed chancel arch survived as well as the N and W gable of the nave, the latter being surmounted by a belfry (O'Flanagan 1930, vol. 2, 26-7). The W gable collapsed in the 1960s (Carey and Farrelly 1994, 80). Nothing survives of a trabeate doorway which was situated in the W gable (Killanin and Duignan 1967, 402). Remains of a piscina are located on top of a wall between the church and the bawn (TN006-003004-), forming part of the crenellations. A carved stone decorated with a cross motif in diaper pattern and found during demolition of the surrounding graveyard wall may have been part of an eleventh/twelfth century doorway (Harbison 1967, 108-11). Harbison suggested that the church may have been pre-Norman in date with a pointed window inserted in the E wall in the fourteenth century (ibid., 108).

The above description is derived from 'The Archaeological Inventory of County Tipperary. Vol. 1 - North Tipperary' compiled by Jean Farrelly and Caimin O'Brien (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2002). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Date of upload/revision: 22 September 2008

References

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

Carey, H. and Farrelly, J. 1994 The urban archaeological survey County Tipperary North Riding. Unpublished report, Office of Public Works.

Ann. Inisf. - The Annals of Innisfallen (MS Rawlinson B 503), ed. and trans. Seán Mac Airt, (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1951)

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

Murphy, A.M. and Ormond, W. 1914 The Royal Visitation, 1615, Diocese of Killaloe. Archivium Hibernicum 3, 210-25.

Simington, R.C. (ed.) 1931 The Civil survey, AD 1654-1656. Vol I: county of Tipperary: eastern and southern baronies. Dublin. Irish Manuscripts Commission.

Harbison, P. 1967 A decorated stone fragment from Terryglass, County Tipperary. North Munster Antiquarian Journal 10, 108-11.

Swan, L. 1983 Enclosed ecclesiastical sites and their relevance to settlement patterns of the first millennium A.D. In T. Reeves-Smyth and F. Hamond (eds), Landscape archaeology in Ireland, 269-94. British Archaeological Reports, British Series 116. Oxford.

O'Flanagan, Rev. M. (Compiler) 1930 Letters containing information relative to the antiquities of the county of Tipperary collected during the progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1840. Bray.

Killanin, M.M. and Duignan, M.V. 1967 (2nd ed.) The Shell guide to Ireland. London. The Ebury Press.