Church

The National Monuments Service's description

Located on a small triangular W-E promontory (dims c. 90m E-W; c. 70m N-S at W) of rock outcrop with sea-cliffs on the N (H c. 2m) and SE (H c. 5m) sides. This is the parish church of St Helens parish within a subrectangular graveyard occupying the promontory. At the Dissolution in 1538 the church was impropriate to the Augustinian nuns of Grany, Co. Kildare (KD040-015----) (Hore 1920, 76). According to a Visitation by Thomas Ram, the Protestant bishop of Ferns, in 1615 Phillip Rawe was the curate of Killalan, and the church was in repair (Hore 1900-11, vol. 6, 267). The church was not listed by Synnott writing c. 1680 (Hore 1862; 1921).

The church is an undivided rectangular structure (ext. dims 12.3m E-W; 6m N-S; int. dims 10.9m E-W; 3.75m N-S) with walls surviving to a height of 1-2m. The S wall might be rebuilt as it is wholly inside the S end of the E wall by 0.8m. There is a collapsed entrance (Wth 1.45m) in the W wall and a small destroyed window towards the E end of the N wall. The church was described c. 1907 as having had a narrow doorway with a large stone lintel surmounted by a slit window in the W wall (Hore 1949, 44-5), although John O'Donovan writing c. 1840 says the doorway was pointed (O'Flanagan 1933, vol. 1, 270-1). In 1907 there were two lights in the S wall, and outside the doorway was a granite stone 'seven feet by two and a half feet by 10 inches thick' (c. 2.15m x 0.75m; T c. 0.25m) with a small, irregular cross 'three inches long' (dim. c. 8cm) inscribed at its centre that was known as the goose's foot (Hore 1949, 45), which is not evident now. The graveyard (int. dims c. 70m NNE-WSW; 40m NNW-SSE), has a dense cover of sea-grass and some blackthorn. It is bordered by a sunken N-S path (Wth c. 3m; max. D 1m) immediately W of the church, and is defined by a low bank at S (Wth 4m; int. H 0.4m; ext. H 0.8m) and a scarp (H 1.5m) at N, but only one headstone and a grave-marker are visible. St Helen's Well (WX048-036----) is c. 60m to the W.

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: 8 January 2014

References

Hore, H. F. 1862 An account of the barony of Forth, in the county of Wexford, writtten at the close of the seventeenth century. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, vol. 7, 53-84.

Hore, P.H. 1920 The barony of Forth, Part 1. The Past 1, 62-106.

Hore, P.H. 1921 The barony of Forth, Part 2. The Past 2, 38-99.

Hore, P.H. 1949 The barony of Forth. Part IV. The Past 5, 13-59.