Church

The National Monuments Service's description

Conry church ruins stands inside an Early Christian ecclesiastical enclosure (WM025-005002-) on a natural rise of ground surrounded by poorly drained land known as the 'Island of Conry'. On the 1656-9 Down Survey map of Churchtown parish this townland was known as 'Conry & Cloghoule' (NLI, MS 723-4), the latter was anglicised to the present Croughal which lies in the parish of Churchtown. In 1641 the lands of Conry and Cloghoule belonged to Henry Dalton who is listed in the Down Survey as an 'Irish papist' (ibid.).
Conry church ruins described in 1978 as 'This is the ruin of a rectangular building, built of large limestone boulders, roughly shaped. The walls are set on a low plinth approx. 20cms wide. The ruin measures approx. 19m E-W by 6m N-S. Only the wall footings of the eastern half remain, while the ruined walls of the western half remain in places to a height of approx. 4m. There is a large gap near the western end of the southern wall, this appears to be the site of the original doorway. A wall footing, the remains of a cross wall can be seen crossing the interior N-S approx. 6m from the east end. To the west of this cross wall in the south wall is the remains of a window, only the cut stones in the inner wall remain. It is unclear whether the window was rounded or pointed. It appears to have splayed into a fairly narrow opening in the outer wall. This window appears to be of 12th or 13th century in date. The walls of the church are now in a dangerous state.
To the NW of the church (WM024-005001-) there is a rough limestone slab with remains of an inscribed cross of Early Christian date (WM024-005003-). The church is on a low rise in low lying wet pasture land. The site is criss-crossed with earthworks & enclosures. To the SE of the church there is a possible house site (WM025-005001-).' (SMR file). The cross-slab and church are situated inside a large oval shaped enclosure (WM025-005002-). A second cross-slab (WM025-005004-) is located immediately S of the church. The church is depicted on the 1837 OS Fair Plan map as 'Conragh Old Church' with a 'Grave' marked to the NNW of the SW corner of the church ruins, with a 'Grave Yard' (WM025-005006-) depicted as a sub-rectangular shaped field. The latter is not indicated on the current edition of the OS 6-inch map (SMR file). The Island of Conry is depicted on Magan Estate Map of 1819 as 'Church Ruins & Burial ground', on this map the church and burial ground are not enclosed (SMR file; NLI 14 A 21 (5) )

Compiled and revised by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of revised upload: 05 March 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.

NLI 14 A 21 (1-26) - National Library of Ireland, Book of maps of the estates of W. H. Magan, in the counties of Westmeath, Kildare and Dublin. Surveyed in 1817, 1819 and 1821 by J. J. Byrne. Folio volume of 26 coloured maps.