Graveyard

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Sited on east side of Dunlade Road on elevated undulating site. Road rises steeply from Clooney Road, has fine views of Lough Foyle. Ruins located roughly in middle of graveyard which is bounded by rubble wall. Pedestrian wrought iron gate set between ashlar piers with steps leading upwards in curve to ruin. While many of the graves and headstones are old there are a few comparatively recent and well kept. There are graves within the ruin.

Church ruin measuring internally approximately 19½ metres by 5¼, the long axis roughly SW/NE. Gables of ruin standing with long walls about a metre high. W gable practically covered in ivy with elder tree growing close internally so that observation of the gable is difficult. A lancet high on the gable is concealed by ivy and internally a setback in the wall forms a ledge about three metres high. Externally there are antae with sandstone ashlar quoins the width of wall and projecting 200mm with same chamfered arrises. Unable to assess height of antae. E gable less obscured by vegetation with sandstone ashlar quoins, no antae and a central narrow round headed lancet approximately 250mm wide and 1500mm tall, having pronounced splayed reveals internally and built of red ashlar sandstone. . Difficult to decide if there was glazing. There are remains of curved moulded hood label. There is an opening in the NW wall approximately three metres from inside of SW gable with wing walls projecting outwards as if forming porch. There is no evidence of any other door or window. At the N corner externally and on E side there are five circular declivities arranged crosswise on quoin stone. Each circle is 25mm in diameter. Walls of ruin are built of whinstone generally, some large stones but mostly small, joints mortared.

Near the pedestrian gate and to the NW side of it is a tall crucifix approximately 3.6 metres high on a stepped circular base on which is a pedestal supporting the cross. One side of pedestal filled with Eucharistic symbols as is top of pedestal with various inscriptions covered with inset glass sheets. Difficult to decipher. One side of pedestal has slate insert but no inscription. On the cross is a white crucified figure of Christ. Erected c1920s.

Historical information

In Medieval Religious Houses Ireland in the Appendix headed Early Sites there is a reference “Faughanvale, Co Derry. Nuachongbhail; ch. Ded. To St. Canice (Conici). Erenaghs until early seventeenth century:” and suggests it to be Early site, possibly non monastic and before c1100. Leslie “The ancient parish church (of which St Canice was Patron) was in the townland of Faughanvale. Bishop Montgomery states the Rector was the Dean, the Vicar Eugene McCloskey, and the herenachs, Nigern, Patrick and Edward McCloskey. ‘There is a salmon fishery and a Chapel’!” Leslie further records “In 1622 (R.V.), ‘the old Church is ruinous, but in lieu thereof ye Co of Grocers have erected and finished a good new Church in the chiefe place of their Plantation’ - Muff (Eglinton)”. “Faughanvale old Churchyard is vested in the Local Burial Board”. In Munn’s Notes on the Place Names of the Parishes and Townlands of the County of Londonderry there is a reproduction of a map referred to by John O’Donovan as “the Irish map” and on it the site of the old church of Faughanvale is indicated as Nuacongbail. Nuacongbail means the new ecclesiastical habitation. Munn also refers to “a mitred head cut in freestone on the north west corner of the old Church”. This was not observed. Griffiths V.B. 1858 gives the graveyard in the Lessorship of Rev. Peter Benson Maxwell with a valuation of 5s. 0d.

John O’Donovan Ordnance Survey Memoir states, “The old church of Faughanvale lies in the townland to which it has given name, not far to the south of the high road leading from Newtown to Derry; and its situation is, as normal with ancient Irish churches, remarkable for its natural beauty. Its form is an oblong measuring in its interior 68 feet 2 inches by 22 feet 9 inches, and the walls are …..feet in thickness. Its masonry indicates in every part a considerable antiquity, but the west end wall appears to be of earlier date than the other portions”. “It is built of rubble stone, but the quoins and window stones are ashlar. It has two windows, one at its east and the other at its west end. The windows, as usual in the ancient Irish churches, are splayed in the interior and do not appear designed to receive glass. The western window, which is evidently the more ancient, it of the lancet form and its masonry is of an inferior style from that of the other. It is 4 feet high and 1 foot wide,. The eastern window has a semi-circular head and is of more regular architecture. It is 3 feet 4 inches high and 8 inches wide, and has a plain drip moulding. There are no remains of the doorway, which was situated in the south wall. The graveyard, though it is the principal burying place of the Roman Catholic inhabitants of the parish, has only two inscribed tombstones, and these are of recent date.” “No records have been discovered which throw any light upon the foundation of, or distinguished men connected with this church…….”

The cruciform cross was erected c1920s by a Mr Mullan in memory of the McKinney families of the district.

Monument Ref. LDY SH.28, 15:24

References:

Gwynn & Hadcock Medieval Regligious Houses Ireland 1988
Munn Notes on The Place Names of the Parishes and Townlands of the County of Londonderry 1925
Leslie Clergy and Parishes of Derry and Raphoe
O S Memoir Vol. 36 - Faughanvale
H M S O Pieces of the Past

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Important example of early medieval Irish church architecture and probably dates from the twelfth century when the parish system was being built up. The plan proportions accord with the frequent ratio of 3:1 in early stone churches and likewise the use of small narrow lancets. The antae of the ‘west’ wall is a peculiarity of Irish church buildings and appears in some as late in date as the middle of the 1200 century. However these gable projections may not be antae but clasping buttresses. A chamfer on the stonework at the west corner may support this. Its ‘east’ window, though of later date, is a fine example of medieval ashlar stonework. The ruins and graveyard have great national and local interest historically and traditionally.