Church

The National Monuments Service's description

In flat pasture which falls away to the Multeen River valley to the W. Situated towards the N end of a roughly rectangular graveyard (TS060-049003-). Ballygriffin fortified house (TS060-050001-) and bawn (TS060-050002-) are 70m to the S.
An undivided church (ext. dims. 8.16m N-S; c. 18.42m E-W of which 17.7m survives upstanding; wall T 0.8m), orientated E-W, of limestone construction, roughly coursed with well cut quoins at NW and SW angles and slight base-batter on W gable (H 2m; Wth 0.12m). The doorway (Wth 1.3m) is towards the W end of the S wall, its opening crudely rebuilt. In the interior, adjacent to the doorway, there is the carved slab (Wth 0.59m; H 0.66m; D 0.17m) which formed the apex of the ogee-headed door surround and is all that survives of this door surround. It is decorated with vine-leaf carvings sprouting from intertwined stems. There is a central vine-leaf finial with a bird pecking a punch of grapes on the dexter side (its right, but if looking at it on the left side), it is likely that this motif was mirrored on the other side of the finial where there is a bunch of grapes but the portion where the bird should be has been broken off. This ornamental carving is almost identical to that over the doorway to the sacristy of the church of St. Mary's Abbey at Devenish, Co. Fermanagh which Leask (1960, Reprint 1985, vol. 3, 77) dates stylistically to the third quarter of the 15th century. Another similarly carved doorway from the Augustinian abbey of Fertagh (KK008-047001-) is now inserted in the C of I church at Johnstown (KK008-153----). White (1892, 26) mentions a 'small square hole' built into the doorway, probably to contain a stoup.
According to the OS Letters there were four windows in the church, two in each side wall. Along the N wall the masonry has been broken out in four places. The most westerly break and that E of centre were definitely window embrasures. The embrasure of a window towards the E end of the S wall partially survives and another window may have been where there is now a break (Wth 0.65m) in the masonry between this and the doorway. The W gable contains no features. The E gable had completely collapsed by the 1840s (O'Flanagan 1930, vol. 1, 90) and there is a mound of grass-covered rubble where it stood. The door surround would suggest a 15th-century date for this church. There is a 17th-century graveslab (TS060-049004-) in the interior towards the W end of the N wall.

Compiled by: Jean Farrelly

Date of revised upload: 25 July 2018

References

White, J.D. 1892 Anthologia Tipperariensis. Cashel.

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.

Leask, H.G. 1960 (Reprint 1971, 1978 and 1985) Irish churches and monastic buildings, vol. III. Medieval gothic the last phases. Dundalk. Dundalgan Press.