Cappanargid Church (in ruins)

Near the centre of a graveyard (KD017-007001-) on the site of a possible ecclesiastical enclosure (KD017-00702-). A fairly poorly preserved rectangular structure (int. dims. L 13.3m E-W; Wth 4.5m) is built in two phases; the older W-two-thirds is built of large, roughly coursed, limestone blocks (wall T 0.88m), while the later E-end is built of much smaller limestone blocks and flags (wall T 0.85m). The building is entered through a fine round-arched, sandstone doorway (Wth 0.85m; H 1.8m) in the W gable wall, above which a partially robbed-out, small, square-headed window lit a loft, further evidence of which is provided by opposing beam-slot holes at the W end of the N and S walls. The building was lit by four, now partially robbed-out, windows in tall round-arched embrasures; one mid-way along the S wall, two opposing windows near the E end of the N and S walls, and a fine, tall, narrow, round-headed, sandstone window in the E gable wall. A partially robbed-out aumbry survives in the N wall, to E of centre. The interior contains several piles of grassed-over collapsed rubble, and in 1987 it was noted that ivy cover and overgrowth had been recently removed by burning (SMR file). The church may be pre-Norman, but the presence of imposts in the doorway suggests a late-12 century date (pers. comm. T. O'Carragáin). Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy Date of upload: 10 June 2011