Church

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on a gentle to marked S-facing mountain slope in forestry (the interior of the enclosure has not been planted). A nave (int. dims. 5.2m x 3.8m) and chancel (int. dims. 2m x 2m) church with uncoursed rubble walls (Wth m1m; H 0.45m) with inner and outer facing and a loose core. The door is at the W end of S wall, but there are no surviving indications of windows. It is at the W side of a quadrangular enclosure (dims. 40m N-S; 30m E-W) defined by an earth and stone bank (Wth 1.6m; H 1m) with foundations of boulders and an external fosse (Wth 1m; D 0.15m) on the E side. There are three gaps of which one in the W side (6m S of the church; Wth 1m) is clearly original. Foundations of a rectangular structure (int. dims. c. 6m E-W; 3m N-S) with possible W door attached to outer face of enclosure bank N of entrance. A stone-strewn area S of the church indicates the burial area.

This site was the subject of a UCD School of Archaeology multidisciplinary landscape archaeology research and teaching project. By 2004, detailed surveys of the site had recorded a range of features including the church, an enclosure wall (WI016-009002-), two cairns (WI016-009004- and WI016-009005-), a formal laneway (WI016-009007-), a possible medieval building (WI016-009006-), and a probable Children's Burial Ground (WI016-009003-). Three seasons, 2004-06, of archaeological excavation (Excavation Licence 04E1192) were also undertaken which revealed that preceding the stone-walled enclosure and laneway, there is a potential earlier medieval, or even possible prehistoric structure (WI016-009008-), represented by a narrow, curving cut feature in the subsoil of the laneway at the enclosure entrance. (O'Sullivan and Warren 2007, 474-5; O'Sullivan and Warren 2009; 563-5)

The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Wicklow' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1997). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Date of revision: 15 January 2013

Revised by: Claire Breen

References

O'Sullivan, A. and Warren, G. 2009 'Templeteenaun, Ballinagee. In I. Bennett (Ed.) Excavations 2006: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 563-5 (No. 2149). Bray. Wordwell.

O'Sullivan, A. and Warren, G. 2007 'Templeteenaun, Ballinagee. In I. Bennett (Ed.) Excavations 2004: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 474-5 (No. 1844). Bray. Wordwell.