Chapel

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated in woodland, in the centre of Clonlost graveyard (WM020-038001-), c. 55m N of a farmyard and c. 115m N of the site of Clonlost House. St Columbkille’s Well (WM020-037----) lies c. 110m to SE. Depicted on the 1837 ed. OS 6-inch map as a rectangular-shaped structure orientated N-S, annotated ‘Church’, within a pentagonal-shaped graveyard. Depicted on the 1913 ed. OS 25-inch map as a rectangular-shaped structure orientated E-W and annotated ‘Church (in Ruins)’, within a sub-rectangular-shaped graveyard. No church is depicted at this location on the 1657 Down Survey map of Rathconnell Parish which in 1641 stood on lands belonging to Thomas Nugent who is listed as a Protestant landowner (NLI MS 723-4). Clonlost Church stands in the parish of Rathconnell and was probably a medieval chapel of ease or a manorial church belonging to the Nugent family who resided at Clonlost and was later converted into a Nugent family mausoleum from the 17th century onwards. In 1710 Thomas Nugent of Cushenstown, Co. Westmeath stated in his will that he was to be 'buried with his ancestors in the church of Clonlost, where some of his children are buried' (Ainsworth and MacLysaght 1958, 168). In 1727 Walter Nugent of Carpenterstown, Co. Westmeath requested to be buried in 'his ancestors' burying place at Clonlost' (ibid., 175).
Clonlost Church ruins consists of a small ivy-covered rectangular-shaped building with walls standing to full height. This multi-period structure appears to be the remains of a small medieval church which was converted into the Nugent family burial place from the 17th century onwards. The remains of a Nugent chest tomb dating rom 1672 stands in SE corner of church with 19th century memorial to N in NE corner of church. At the W end of the church are the remains of several other vaulted crypts belonging to the Nugent family which have been inserted into the floor of the church. A large capstone for one of these crypts is visible lying on the surface directly inside the doorway of the church
The ivy-covered walls of the church (ext. dims. 8.6m E-W x 6.8m N-S; wall T 0.76m) survive to full height, although the present ivy-covered W wall appears to be later than the N and S walls and is not bonded into them. The entrance is through a pointed doorway (Wth 0.9m; H 1.9m) at W end of the S wall which has been reset into an earlier embrasure the rear-arches of which are visible over the cut stone archway. There is a plain round-headed single light window to W of the doorway set high into the wall and probably dates from the post-1700 period. There is a single light trefoil-headed window (Wth 0.3m) at E end of S wall with evidence for glazing groove and iron bar socket in the cut stone surround. A small, crude L-shaped aumbry (dims. H 0.3m x 0.3m W x 0.4m D ) is visible directly underneath the trefoil-headed window of 14th or 15th century date. There is a similar window in the centre of the E wall with a small cusped ogee-headed window, which is set into a wide embrasure and seems to be of earlier date. The corners of the embrasure are of sandstone, which may suggest a 13th century date. There are two small plain round-headed windows in the N wall. There are the remains of plaster visible on the W wall which may be post-1700 in date. The remainder of the church is in a ruinous state and obscured by ivy.

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

Revised by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of revised upload: 11 June 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.

Ainsworth, J. F. and MacLysaght, E. 1958 Survey of documents in private keeping. 2nd series. Nugent Papers, Analecta Hibernica 20, 126-214.