Templemoyle Old Church site

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Site of early mediaeval church with only remains of some stones and scrub growing through them. Situated in the middle of a barley field to the side of a laneway off the Banagher Road. No plan form can be readily discerned.

Historical information

Said to have been founded by St Murrough O’Heney in the late 11th cent. but was abandoned by the saint because of the flatness of the ground and he moved to the more elevated site in Magheramore townland where the ruins of Banagher old church stand. O.S. Memoirs relates that a dispute arose as to the site of the church. It is said that a deer indicated the site, another story is that each night after a day’s building it was thrown down. There is doubt as to whether a finished edifice was achieved. Yet it was surmised that the entrance was located near the west end of the south wall. There is no evidence today to confirm this. The site is marked on the O.S. Map 1830 Rev. 1905 Londonderry sh. 30.
M No. LDY 30.30

References

Primary Sources
1. O.S. Map 1830 Londonderry sh. 30.
2. O.S. Map 1830 Rev. 1905 Londonderry sh. 30
3. O.S. Memoirs of Ireland, Parishes of Co Londonderry X, 1833-34, 1838
Ed by Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams Q.U.B. p. 37, 39, 41

Secondary Sources
1. Banagher History Group, Historic Monuments and Sites of Banagher p. 35

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A site of an early mediaeval church of the 11th or early 12th cent. It is uncertain whether a church was established here but it is suggested that it was the forerunner of Banagher Old Church.