Banagher Old Church –

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A tomb in the form of a stone built hut with gabled and pitched roof. Built of sandstone in ashlar work approx. 2400 x 1500mm in plan and approx. 1800mm to ridge. The orientation is similar to the church ruins and in the west gable there is a sunken panel or recess which goes from ground level to a little above eaves level. The recess is around 100mm and within it there is the bust of a figure in low relief, much eroded, and about 500mm high by 400. The remainder of recess faced with random sized stones. The side walls are well built with a small projection on the corners of the east gable and forms a plinth to the latter. The east gable between the quoin stones is an infill of random rubble work.

The steeply pitched roof is faced with ashlar slabs of sandstone in 4 courses, the bottom course being much greater on the face. The ridge is a series of shaped stones. The tomb sits on a crude plinth which projects beyond the side walls and is presumably the foundation stones. A small hole near the base of the west gable is used to extract “sand” supposed to have curative effects. The plan form has proportions similar to the “Golden Section” and the gables form an equilateral triangle.

The tomb is located to the south of the church ruins and downhill from the summit and is presently surrounded on 3 sides by a random rubble wall where the excavation cuts into the slope. The tomb is within the confines of the old graveyard. ( Compare this tomb with that in the old Graveyard at Bovevagh ) (HB02/04/001).

It was restored in the first part of the 19th cent. by Rev. Doherty. Compare illustration of east gable at present with illustration in Petrie, The Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland.

Historical information

The tomb is traditionally known as the burial place of St Muiredach, also known as St Murrough O’Heney and the O S Memoir comments “a saint who graces no calendar except that of his sept in Banagher”. Further comment “The sand around is reckoned sacred, and the O’Heneys claim the sole privilege of lifting it. Every house of the sept has a store of it, and they gravely relate many legends of its virtues”. The tomb may date from between the 13th and 15th cent. It was restored c1830.
S M No. LDY 30-29

References

Primary Sources
1. O.S. Map 1830 Londonderry sh. 30
2. O.S. Memoirs of Ireland, Parishes of Co Londonderry X 1833-5, 1838
Ed Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams QUB p.6 49
3. John McCloskey, Statistical Reports of Six Derry Parishes 1821 p.76
4. Historic Monuments of Northern Ireland, DOE NI p. 126

Secondary Sources
1. Lewis, A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland p. 176
2. Historic Monuments and Sites of Banagher, The Banagher History Group p.36-38
3. A Rowan, The Buildings of Ireland – North West Ulster p.294
4. G Petrie, The Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland, The origin and rises of The Round Towers of Ireland p. 448, 449

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A fine late mediaeval tomb to the memory of the abbot founder of the monastic settlement in the townland of Carnanbane, Parish of Banagher, finely proportioned and well preserved. Similar to the tomb in the old graveyard of Bovevagh.