Church

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated at W end of a ridge, in undulating pasture, with good views in all directions. Hopestown Castle (WM018-140----) and bawn (WM018-140001-) lies 310m to S. In centre of Hopestown graveyard (WM018-139001-). Depicted on the 1837 ed. OS 6-inch map as a rectangular-shaped structure annotated ‘Hopestown Church (in ruins)’, roughly within the centre of the graveyard. Church depicted on the 1913 ed. OS 25-inch map as an L-shaped structure. Church ruins situated S of the Mullingar-Ballymahon Road, 4km W of Mullingar town, in the parish of Mullingar, and the barony of Moyashel and Magheradernon. No castle or church is depicted standing in Hopestown on the 1656-9 Down Survey map of Mullingar parish (NLI, MS 723-4).
Ivy-covered ruins of Hopestown Church stands off centre to E in large rectangular-shaped graveyard. Poorly preserved remains of a small rectangular-shaped church (ext. dims. 8.8m E-W; 6m N-S; Wall T 0.78m) aligned E-W of which only the lower courses of the ivy-covered W gable (ext. H 1.4m; int. H 0.8m; ext. H 1.3m) survives upstanding along with a short section of the N wall (int. L 4.85m) and fragmentary remains of the S wall are visible. The outline of the E end of the church is defined only as a low scarp (Wth 0.78m) and is difficult to discern. The walls are built of undressed limestone laid in courses and bonded with a rough mortar. There are no architectural features in the upstanding remains. There is one grave to the Glennon family in the W end of the church interior. Monument visible today as a tree-covered area on Digital Globe aerial photography.

Compiled by: Alison McQueen, Vera Rahilly and Caimin O’Brien

Revised by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of revised upload: 22 February 2019

References

NLI, MS 723-4 - National Library of Ireland, The parish maps of the Down Survey for the County of Westmeath, attested by W. Petty, in 1659. Copied by Daniel O'Brien. A set of 67 maps with accompanying terriers in two volumes, 1786-7. Dublin.