Abbey in Curraghnagap

In Easkey village, located on bedrock bluff c. 20m N of Easkey River. Enclosed on the S and W by an L-shaped, walled graveyard (SL011-021001-). Indicated on the 1837 OS 6-inch map as 'Abbey' and on the 1913 edition as 'Abbey in Ruins'. The church is listed in the Ecclesiastical Taxation of Ireland of 1306 as Imelackiskel and is valued at 5 marks (Sweetman and Handcock (eds) 1886, 217; O’Rorke 1889, 414). Ruined rectangular church, with walls of mortared random rubble. The E and W gables and the S wall survive to almost full height. The E end of the N wall has fallen and the surviving lower courses were capped with concrete blocks. There is a narrow window, now partly broken out, in the W gable. The E gable features a tall, round-headed lancet window (H 2.4m; Wth 0.21m) in an inwardly splayed embrasure (Wth 1.6m). The embrasure is capped with a lintel made from whale bone (Moore 2016, 3). Another round-headed lancet at the E end of the S wall is blocked up in the interior wall face, but remains clearly visible on the exterior. The doorway (H 1.85m; Wth 1.65m) is located to W of centre in the S wall. In a drawing of the church done by Wakeman in 1879, the doorway is surmounted by a hood moulding incorporating three carved stone heads, with the head at the apex of the arch depicting a mitred bishop (Wakeman 1893, folio 121, no. 153). Only two fragments of dressed stone remain in situ on the doorway but, during a graveyard survey in 2015-2016, several displaced fragments of the hood moulding and the lower door frame were found within the graveyard (Moore 2016, 5). Amongst the finds is one of the carved stone heads, now badly damaged. The bishop’s head, with a finely carved decorative band on the mitre, was found several years previously. The two lancet windows may date to the 13th century; the hood moulding of the doorway is 15th- or 16-century in date (Moore 2016, 5). A ringed cross is depicted at the apex of the W gable in Wakeman’s 1879 drawing, and was also noted by Wood-Martin (1882, 115) who recorded 'a remarkable cross on the gable of the old church at Easkey'. Two fragments of a carved stone cross were found in 2015 at the base of the interior of the west gable, and may be from this gable cross. They indicate a maximum width of the cross-arms of 0.62m. A rope chord decoration is evident on the outer edge of the cross circle. This cross appears to be relatively late in date (Moore 2016, 14). The interior floor space of the church is grass-covered, and largely filled with grave slabs, three table tombs, and low, uninscribed grave markers. The design of some of the grave slabs suggests that they date to the 18th century, although the inscriptions are now illegible. An inscription on one of the table tombs dates to the early 19th century. A 19th-century grave in the SE angle encroaches on the S edge of the window in the E gable, and the wall surfaces at E and S in the angle have been covered in cement plaster to a height of c. 1.75m. A programme of conservation works under the aegis of the Community Monument Fund and Sligo County Council was undertaken at the church in 2021 and 2022. Attached images: SL011-021----_01.JPG Viewed from S SL011-021----_02.JPG Viewed from SW SL011-021----_03.JPG Interior, viewed from W SL011-021----_04.JPG Interior, viewed from E SL011-021----_05.JPG Church (cloaked in ivy) located on bedrock outcrop overlooking river, viewed from N Compiled by: Jane O'Shaughnessy Date of revised upload: 3 November 2022