Church

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on a slight E-W spur with small E-W streams c. 70m to the N and c. 150m to the S. The streams converge c. 200m to the W. This site of the parish church of Edermine is within a rectangular graveyard (dims. c. 70m E-W; c. 70m N-S) defined by an earth and stone bank on all sides except the E where there is a masonry wall bordering a N-S road. Records of the medieval church go back to the 1300-01 when Geoffry Mare was Provost of Edermine (Hore 1900-11, vol. 6, 581-3). According to a Visitation by Thomas Ram, the Protestant bishop of Ferns, in 1615 this chapel was connected to Rathaspick (WX042-010001-), but the condition of the church building is not recored (ibid. vol. 6, 272). John O'Donovan writing c. 1840 records that the old church was pulled down (O'Flanagan 1933, vol. 2, 96 7), probably when a Church of Ireland church was built in 1811 (Lewis 1837, vol. 1, 595). All traces of this church have now been removed and there are no visible remains of a structure at ground level. The possible standing stone (WX026 033003-) is within the graveyard at SW. St Kieran's Well (WX026-025----) and St. Cooran’s Well (WX026-078----) are located c. 700m to the N. Archaeological testing immediately to the S produced evidence of archaeological features (WX026-073----), but testing (01E0158) further S on the other side of the stream produced no archaeological material (Tierney 2003).

The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Wexford' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1996). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload/revision: 12 July 2012
Amended: 4 Sep. 2013

References

Tierney, J. 2003 Edermine: no archaeological significance. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 2001: summary accounts of archaeological excavtions in Ireland, 402, No. 1301. Bray. Wordwell.

Hore, P.H. 1900-1911 (Reprint 1979) History of the town and county of Wexford, 6 vols. Dublin. Published by arrangement with W.A. Hennessy Esq.

O'Flanagan, Rev. M. (Compiler) 1933 Letters containing information relative to the antiquities of County Wexford, collected during progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1838. Typescript in 2 vols. Bray.

Lewis, S. 1837 A topographical dictionary of Ireland, 2 vols. London. Lewis and Co.