Church

The National Monuments Service's description

On a low rise of ground in undulating pasture. Templeoran House located 600m to SW. Levelled church site standing inside a roughly D-shaped burial ground (WM033-052001-) that is depicted as an earthwork on the 1837 ed. OS 6-inch map. A long rectangular enclosure (dims. c. 20m E-W; 7m N-S) defined by a slight bank at N and W, elsewhere reduced to a scarp marks the site of the levelled church. On the 1837 ed. OS 6-inch map the church is depicted as an upstanding building. On the revised 1910 ed. OS 6-inch map the enclosure is not indicated and the church is depicted as ‘site of’ indicating that it has been levelled between these dates. The levelled church site was located at the N end of a D-shaped enclosure (dims. c. 46m N-S; 35m E-W) which is defined by a low scarp and a post-1700 field boundary which forms the straight side of the enclosure from E-S. No church depicted in Templeoran on the 1654 Down Survey map of the parish of Clonfad (NLI Ms, 723-44). The Boyd Belvedere Maps of 1818 (WCL/M/BBE/4) located in Westmeath County Library annotates the area around the church as ‘Old Burial Ground’ (WM033-052001-).
In 1584 Queen Elizabeth granted Anthony Deeringe, 'Templeorane, alias Ballyshane, in the county Westmeath' (Morrin 1862, 85).

See attached word document for aerial photograph of church site and graveyard taken from bing maps at www.bing.com/maps

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 16 July 2013

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.

Morrin, J. (ed.) 1862 Calendar of the Patent and Close Rolls of Chancery in Ireland, from the 18th to the 45th of Queen Elizabeth. Dublin. HMSO.