What is recorded here

Ivy smothers the west gable of a small church beside Richardstown tower house, hiding roughly coursed limestone and greywacke from ordinary sight. Its round-headed window, moulded sandstone jambs and opposing doorways suggest a late twelfth-century building changed in later medieval times. A worn oval font and scattered cut stones mark the graveyard, preserving a place where worship, memory and neglect have all left their hands behind.

The following description is derived from both the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Louth' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1986) and the 'Archaeological Survey of County Louth' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1991). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 17 July 2007 Undivided nave and chancel (max. dims. 11m by 5m), built of roughly coursed limestone blocks and greywacke, now completely covered with ivy. It is situated downslope to the N of Richardstown tower house (LH017-092----). The W gable is the only substantial portion surviving and it has a single-light window with round-headed arch stone and moulded sandstone jambs which are almost certainly early medieval, possibly late twelfth century. The remains of opposing doorways in the N and S walls at the W end indicate a building of fifteenth- or sixteenth-century date. Therefore the church appears to have been built in the late twelfth or early thirteenth century and altered in late medieval times. There are the remains of a medieval font with an oval-shaped basin in the W end of the church, and several pieces of cut stone in the surrounding graveyard which are used as grave-markers. (Leslie 1908, 130; CLAJ 1943, 208-9)

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