Church

The National Monuments Service's description

Located towards the top of a gentle S-facing slope. The parish church of Artramon is within a small rectangular graveyard (dims c. 33m E-W; c. 28m N-S) defined by earthen banks. This is within a possible ecclesiastical enclosure visible as a D-shaped area (dims c. 130m N-S; c. 120m E-W) truncated by a N-S lane at W that is visible on digitalmap images. It is also faintly visible under polythene on Google Earth (25/05/2017), and was first reported by Ivor Kenny. According to a Visitation by Thomas Ram, the Protestant bishop of Ferns, in 1615 Richard Devereoux was the rector of Ardcroman, Richard Hore the curate, and while the church was in good condition the chancel needed repair (Hore 1900-11, vol. 6, 271).

This is a nave and chancel church of which only the chancel (int. L 6.9m; int. Wth 4.25m) can be traced as wall foundations, except the N wail (H c. 5m) which has two small lights placed high in the ivy-covered wall, and the adjacent part of the E wall with two niches placed one above the other. A stone with prehistoric cup-mark decoration was identified in the graveyard during 2018 by Michael Fortune. It is a naturally rounded granite stone (dims 0.44m x 0.4m; T 0.27m) covered in cup-marks (diam. c. 2.5-4cm; D0.5-1cm) on one face only. St Bridget's Well (WX037-06----), an oval drystone walled well that is still venerated, lies c. 120m to the SSW and the tower house (WX037-07----) is c. 170m to the SSW.

See the attached section from the Down Survey (1656-8) parish map (N at left) reproduced courtesy of the National Library of Ireland (Ms 725)

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 December, 2012
Amended: 4 Sep. 2013, 10 October, 2018, 26 October 2018