Church

The National Monuments Service's description

Church site dedicated to St Éanán whose feastday is celebrated on the 19th of August and 18th of September (Ó Riain 2011, 657-8). Holy well (WM023-039----) dedicated to St Éanán located 140m to NE. Drumraney castle (WM023-036---) located 300m to N. In the 6th century St Aed visited Éanán hermit of the monastery of Druim-rath [Drumraney] in the west of Meath (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 382). In 946 the Annals recorded that 'an army was led by the foreigners over Druim-raithe; and they burned the oratory and seven score and ten persons within it' (AFM, 661). The church and castle of Drumrany or Drumrath was built by Sir Henry Dillon [De Lion], Lord of Drumrany, shortly after 1185 when he was granted land in this region which later became known as Dillon’s Country (Brydges 1817, 25-6). The church of Drumrath [Drumraney] in the deanery of Loxouedi [Loughsewdy], in the diocese of Meath was valued at 6 marks per year in the 1302-06 ecclesiastical taxation of Ireland (Cal. doc. Ire., 266). Medieval church of Drumraney depicted on the 1659 Down Survey map of Drumraney parish which it is shown standing inside its glebe land measuring 32 plantation acres in size (NLI, MS 723-4). The terrier of the 1659 Down Survey map of Drumraney parish recorded that ‘on ye Gleabe Land Standes a Church’ (ibid.). In 1693 it was recorded that in ‘Drumraney alias Drumrath’ the medieval church was dedicated to St. Eugenius [Enanus/Éanán] and the condition of the building was described as a ‘Church and chancel ruined’ (Ellison 1975, 11). According to Cogan the medieval church was replaced by a Church of Ireland place of worship. Cogan (1867, 505) wrote that the medieval church had ‘been torn down and uprooted, and a Protestant house of worship built with the materials alongside’.
No surface remains visible of the church depicted on all editions of the OS 6-inch maps which is shown standing in the N quadrant of Drumraney graveyard (WM023-040001-). This church was a 19th century C of I church which replaced the medieval church site of Drumraney. The precise location of this medieval church site has not been identified within the graveyard. In 2013 a clean up scheme was undertaken inside the graveyard which resulted in the levelling of the surface of the graveyard and the reseeding of grass which has resulted in the removal of surface features. In the early 1940s Westmeath County Council pulled down the C of I church ruins and used the stone for improvement works on the main road.
The older graveyard occupies the S half of the present graveyard and appears to have been defined by a small enclosure (WM023-040004-) now survived by a scarp running E-W across the middle of the present graveyard. Inside this section of graveyard there are several architectural fragments belonging to the medieval church of Drumraney. Punch dressed stone from the medieval church has been rebuilt into wall of 19th century memorial surround located in W quadrant of graveyard. The head of a cut stone round-arched single light window lies on the surface of the graveyard in the W quadrant. The medieval punch dressed finial stone (H 0.16m ; Wth 0.3m; L 0.3m) belonging to the gable of the medieval church which supported a stone cross lies on the surface of the graveyard 2.95m W of the 1632 graveslab (WM023-040003-). Coping stones for the gable of the medieval church have been reused as a seat built into the inner face of the N face of the graveyard wall. Other architectural fragments such as window mullions lie amongst the headstones of the graveyard and some have may have been reused as gravemarkers.

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 6 July 2015

References

Cal. doc. Ire. - Calendar of documents relating to Ireland 1171-1307, ed. H.S. Sweetman (5 vols., London, 1875-86).

AFM - Annals of the kingdom of Ireland by the Four Masters from the earliest period to the year 1616, ed. and trans. John O'Donovan (7 vols., Dublin, 1851; reprint New York, 1966)

Gwynn, A. and Hadcock, R.N. 1970 (Reprint 1988) Medieval religious houses of Ireland. Dublin. Irish Academic Press.

Ó Riain, P. 2011 A dictionary of Irish Saints. Dublin. Four Courts Press.

Ellison, C. C. 1975 Bishop Dopping's Visitation Book 1682-1685. Ríocht na Midhe 6, 3-12.

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.

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

Brydges, E. 1817 A biographical peerage of Ireland. London. J. Nichols and Co.