Church

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated towards the bottom of a severe S-facing slope. This is the parish church of Kilgobnet dedicated to St Gobnet of Ballyvourney, Co. Cork, within a subrectangular graveyard (dims. c. 70m N-S; c. 40-60m E-W). It was described by John O'Donovan c. 1840 as a nave (dims. c. 13.2m x 9.5m) and chancel (dims. c. 5.1m x c. 4.8m), of which the S nave wall, a pointed chancel arch and the E gable with a small pointed window survived (O'Flanagan 1929, 40-41). The remains of a Romanesque doorway (ibid.) in the S wall of the nave, which was reputedly the inspiration for the W doorway of the RC church now just to the E, is no longer present.

The nave is now reduced to a consolidated cairn of rubble (dims. 14.25m x 9.1m) and a fragment of the E gable survives. Cut-stone fragments, some with keel-moulding, and an octagonal font (dims. 0.58m x 0.58m; H 0.48m) with a circular basin (diam. 0.44m; D 0.21m) are at the site. Tobar Aphoona (originally called Tobergobnet), where a pattern was held on February 11th (Power 1937, 187), is in a quarry c. 110m to the NE and may be a flooded souterrain. (Power 1897b, 73-6)

O'Flanagan, M. (Compiler) (1929) Letters containing information relative to the antiquities of the county of Waterford collected during the progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1841. Typescript. Bray.
Power, Rev. P. (1897b) The ancient ruined churches of Co. Waterford. WAJ 3, 3-12, 72-8; 216-227.
Power, Rev. P. (1937) Waterford and Lismore; a compendious history of the united dioceses. Cork University Press.

The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Waterford' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1999). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Compiled by: Michael Moore. Date of upload: 25th August, 2011.