Church

The National Monuments Service's description

On a rise of ground sloping gradually to S-SW in undulating pasture, on the N side of the graveyard (TS070-015001-), with a house to the W. Cramp's Castle (TS070-045002-) is visible 640m to the SW. The Papal Taxation of 1291 records (Cashel and Emly Atlas 1970, ix) the Archbishop's Manor of Everard in the Deanery of Fethard, formerly a termon land of a monastery associated with St. Malog (patron of Fethard) (Cahill 1982). The church (overall dims. 13.8m x 6.88m; internal dims. 11.95m x 5.6m; wall T 1m; S wall H 2.65m; N wall H 1.5m rising to 2.4m at the E gable; H gables 5.5-6m), aligned E-W, is built of roughly coursed limestone rubble and is heavily ivy covered. The W end of the N wall is covered by a lot of collapsed rubble. At the SW angle the interior is key-in up to a height of 1.35m but not above this. The entrance towards the W end of the S wall has been modified, none of the original surrounds survive. There is a breach towards the E end of the S wall which would have contained a window and a small aumbry (Wth 0.44m; D 0.35m; H 0.35m; H above int. ground level 0.27m) at the E end of the S wall which was probably the piscina. According to the OS letters (O'Flanagan 1930, vol. 2, 157) the E gable is a central gable with 'a quadrangular doorway of masonwork on it, which was four feet ten inches [1.45m] high by three feet [0.9m] broad originally. It is now somewhat injured', and the 'extext of the choir is not ascertainable'. The description of this doorway is not in keeping with a chancel arch. The doorway is not visible in the E gable where there has been some patching of masonry, and there is a relatively small hole through the wall in this area. Despite the heavy overgrowth of ivy on the E gable, the external southern end does not appear to have any trace of a return for the S wall of a chancel. The N side is obsured by collapsed rubble and piles of wood. At a distance of 3.35m E of the E gable there are the remains of the SE angle (E L 5.5m) of a structure defined by rubble, with a large pile of wood covering most of the structure. Though this structure is interpreted as a chancel in the OS Letters it is more likely to be a burial plot or vault, although it was a ruin in 1840. A sandstone jamb (dims. 0.3m x 0.26m x 0.18m) with a chamfered edge (Wth 0.1m) and internal rebate, is lying at the base of the external face of the W gable. There are 20th-century headstones in the interior, the latest dating to 1989. In the graveyard the headstones are 18th/19th century in date.

Compiled by: Jean Farrelly

Date of upload: 26 August 2011

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.

Cahill, M. 1982 The archaeology of the Barony of Middlethird, Co. Tipperary. Unpublished M. A. thesis.