Religious house - Carmelite friars

The National Monuments Service's description

On a NE-facing slope, at the NE end of a ridge, in undulating terrain under pasture. This is the supposed Carmelite foundation of Lady's Abbey, Ardfinnan in the diocese of Lismore which was projected in 1314 (Gwynn and Hadcock 1988, 290). The Carmelite convent of Ardfinnan is in the lists of Rinuccini and Fonds Grand Carmes, but it is not listed as existing c. 1737 (in Arch. Ord. Rome (Carmelite order), MS. II, C.O. II. 26, p. 13, written 1739-59)' (Gwynn and Hadcock 1958, 290). In 1537 the 'Heads and Commoners of Clonmel in a presentment...found that the Prior of this house was living in open immorality, and that there was no divine service though the office was endowed to the extent of a ploughland. The abbey was closed and the property confiscated in April 1539 (vide State Papers Henry VIII) ' (ITA Survey 1942). Mid-late 15th-century nave and chancel church with crossing tower and side or Ladys chapel to S of chancel. Built of limestone rubble, roughly coursed (Wth 0.82-1.05m) with roughly dressed quoins and a base-batter (H 0.85m; Wth 0.3m) on the E gable. Nave was entered through a doorway at the W end of the S end. To the E of the doorway a broken stoup, possibly polygonal, projects internally. The nave was lit by a centrally placed two-light ogee-headed window in the W gable, with decorated hollow spandrals and hood-moulding. Separating the nave and chancel there is a five-storey, square crossing-tower (dims. 3.78m) within the interior which rests on four squared pillars with relieving arches on the N and S sides which have been infilled. The tower is further supported by masonry between the tower and side walls of the church, this has a duel function of acting as a buttress for the tower and forming the E gable end of the nave and W gable end of the chancel, it also creates a small chamber between these steep-pitched gables. The N chamber is accessed via a flat-headed doorway (H. 1.45m; Wth 0.66m) in the W wall and has no window. The S chamber is currently used as a storage area for architectural fragments. In the S wall of this chamber there is a broken-out window. At the apex of the pointed vault of the crossing-tower there are two carved bell-rope holes. The pitch of the gables is evident from the coping stones which still project from the tower, at the base of the gables, on the N and S face of the crossing-tower above first-floor level, the coping stones become a string course. This string course is repeated above third-floor level. The tower was entered at first-floor level via a doorway in the S wall. The second floor was lit by a flat-headed single light in the S wall and the third floor was lit by a round-headed single-light window in the S wall. The fourth floor has largely collapsed. The chancel has a separate entrance in the S wall, immediately S of the Lady's Chapel. The chancel was lit by three windows. A pointed traceried window in the E gable, a single-light window in the W end of the S wall and another at the E end, though this is now missing and the wall has been coarsely rebuilt at this point. The original window is described in the OS letters as 'a quadrangular window…of cut limestone' (O'Flanagan 1931, vol.1, 21). Above the apex of the hood-moulding of the E window there is a worn carved male head of sandstone with long neck projecting out in high relief. The male figure appears to be wearing a small cap, perhaps a tonsure. A partially blocked pointed doorway with moulded surround at the E end of the N wall of the chancel formerly led into ancillary buildings of which there are no visible remains. There is a small piscina in the form of a slop-stone within an aumbry at the E end of the S wall and a small aumbry at the E end of the N wall. The entrance to the Lady's Chapel was from the S wall of the chancel but this has been blocked up. It is currently entered through an opening broken through the centre of the W wall of the chapel. It was lit by three windows. A pointed traceried window in the S gable with external hood-moulding which has a carved stone head at each terminal, the W head is that of a demonic green man with vines spewing from his mouth, while the other, a serene lady, is accompanied by a rosette. The tracery has fallen out. There are two windows in the E wall, a round-headed single-light and a two-light ogee-headed window. There is a small aumbry at the E end of the gable and another between the two windows in the E wall. There are a number of architectural fragments in the graveyard, including a door jamb reused as a step at the entrance to the graveyard.

Compiled by: Jean Farrelly

Date of upload: 27 November 2013

References

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

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.