Church

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on a plateau on a gentle S-facing slope, with a N-S stream in its valley c. 160m to the E. An early ecclesiastical site associated with St Colman who, according to tradition, converted St Declan to Christianity. Depicted faintly as a rectangular structure oriented E-W within a rectangular graveyard (WA038-020004-) (dims. c. 65m ENE-WSW; c. 30m NNW-SSE) on the 1840 ed. of the OS 6-inch map. Described as a ‘green mound’ with an enclosing feature (Power 1898b, 162) next to Tober Cholmain holy well (WA038-020003-) and a sacred tree (WA038-020005-) (Fitzgerald 1856-7, 40-42). A slight grass-covered platform is visible (dims. c. 34m N-S; 25m E-W) defined by a field bank at W and slight scarps (max. H 0.7m) at E and S, but there is no evidence of a structure or burial, or of the well or tree. A cresset-stone or stone lamp from the site is now in the NMI (Power 1906b, 146; Moore 1984-5, 112).

FitzGerald, E. (1856-7) Proceedings – “Jottings in archaeology”, JRSAI 4, 40-49, 289-91.
Moore, M. (1984-5) Irish cresset-stones. JRSAI 114-5, 98-116.
Power, Rev. P. (1898b) Excursion guides – 2: Ardmore. WAJ 4, 147-63.
Power, Rev. P. (1906b) On four (or five) stone chalices from early church sites in the Decies, WAJ 9, 143-9.

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.

Date of upload/revision: 10th October, 2011

Compiled by: Michael Moore