Church

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated atop natural hillock in undulating grassland with good views especially from W to N with Killua Castle 625m to NW and St. Lucy's Well (WM009-008----) 500m to NNW. St. Lua's Monastery annotated in Gothic script is marked on the 1837 ed. OS 6-inch map in the vicinity of Killua Castle. According to Cogan (1867, 387) the old church was dedicated to St. Lucy and he described the church ruins as following; 'the church has been torn down and uprooted. The western wall in imitation of the east end of an ancient Catholic church, is a modern erection, manifestly for the purpose of imparting an appearance of sanctity and antiquity to the scenery. The stones of the churches of Killua and Moyagher (ME024-005----) have been used in this building'. In 1408 John Owyg, perpetual vicar of Kyllowagh [Killua] was described as a priest who could not exercise the cure of his said church due to his age and ill health (Cal. papal letters, 127).
Only grass-covered walls of the levelled medieval church of Killua are visible in the highest part of the graveyard (WM009-043001-) W of the 19th century folly standing in SW quadrant. This latter building (ext. L 20m; wall T 0.65m) is mistakenly depicted as a 'Church (in ruins)' on the 1837 ed. OS 6-inch map. The W wall of the folly has a large pointed doorway (Wth 1.38m) of 19th century appearance located off centre to S. To the N of this pointed doorway the pointed chamfered doorway (Wth 0.65m; H 1.95m) of the medieval church has been rebuilt into the W wall of the folly. At first floor level there are two medieval ogee-headed windows with hood mouldings above which have also been taken from the church and reused in the construction of the folly.
In 1940 Oliver Davies recorded that the 'foundation of an old church may be traced in the highest part of the graveyard (WM009-0943001-). In the graveyard are a few cut stones, part of a bevelled arch; two pieces of window jamb; part of a central mullion, glazed; part of a jamb, probably of a door; part of the basin of an octagonal font (WM009-043003-)' (ITA Survey). No surface remains visible of these cut stone fragments described by Davies in 1940.
The folly was described by the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage as following; 'Fragmentary ruins of a late medieval church built, c.1500, on the site of an earlier church. Altered, c.1810, to act as a folly associated with the Killua Castle. Constructed of rubble limestone with dressed stone surrounds to the square-headed, ogee-headed and pointed-arched window and door openings. This site was originally a medieval churchyard. It was altered in the early nineteenth-century to resemble the remains of a medieval Gothic cathedral, serving as a 'sham ruin' or folly associated with Killua Castle, one of a number of follies associated with this estate. This folly would have created a picturesque vista, being on an elevated site, and would have been clearly visible from the south and east elevations of Killua Castle. This work was probably carried out by Sir Thomas Chapman, who carried out extensive works on the Killua Castle estate in the early nineteenth-century' (www.buildingsofireland.ie).

Compiled by: Frank Coyne and Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 26 April 2017

References

Cogan, Rev. A. 1862-70 Ecclesiastical history of the diocese of Meath: ancient and modern. (3 vols) Dublin: John Fowler, Joseph Dollard

Cal. papal letters - Calendar of entries in the papal registers relating to Great Britain and Ireland: papal letters, 1198-1484 [etc.] (London, 1893-)