Church

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on a S facing slope of rising ground in an upland area with a motte castle (TN025-037----) 160m to the W, medieval watermill (TN025-039----) located to the S. Burgess Church listed in the ecclesiastical taxation of the Diocese of Killaloe in 1302 (Cal. doc. Ire., 301). The Royal Visitation of 1615 described the building as 'a good church, a good chancell' (Murphy 1914, 219). Medieval church and watermill depicted on 1654-7 Down Survey map of Burges parish (NLI, MS 721). Described in the Civil Survey of 1654-56 as, 'Upon ye. sd. pld stands the parish Church of Borges ye. sd. lands is not cleerely devided' (Simington 1934, 151).
All that survives of the church is a small portion of the S wall (L 3m; H 3m) in the centre of a large graveyard (TN025-038003-) containing eighteenth and nineteenth-century headstones. The OS Letters describe both the N and S walls of the church (Wth 24ft [7.32m]) surviving with no evidence of either gable (O'Flanagan 1930, vol. 3, 113; Gleeson 1951, 98). A sheela-na-gig (TN025-038002-) discovered by local men in 1932 in the NE corner of the church is now housed in the National Museum (Raftery 1969, 92-3).

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.

Compiled by: Jean Farrelly and Caimin O'Brien

Revised by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of revised upload: 21 February 2020

References

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.

Simington, R.C. (ed.) 1934 The Civil survey, AD 1654-1656. Vol. II: county of Tipperary - Western and Northern baronies. Dublin. Irish Manuscripts Commission.

Raftery, J. 1969 A sheela-na-gig from Burgesbeg, Co. Tipperary. North Munster Antiquarian Journal 12, 92-3.

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

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

Gleeson, D.F. 1951-2 Churches in the deanery of Ormond. North Munster Antiquarian Journal 6, 96-107, 130-35.

NLI, MS 721 – National Library of Ireland , The parish maps of the Down Survey of County Tipperary, attested by Wm. Petty in 1657. Copied by Daniel O'Brien. A set of 67 maps with accompanying terriers, 1786-7. Dublin.