Church (in ruins)

Situated on a level, low-lying landscape, c. 470m NE of the SE-NW Goish stream. This is the parish church of Aglish listed as Gallis, probably from Aglish na nGall - the foreigners' church, in the ecclesiastical taxation of 1302 and later documents. It is within a subrectangular graveyard (dims. c. 55m E-W; c. 40m N-S) defined by a stone-clad earthen bank at E with masonry walls on the other sides. The church is an undifferentiated structure of which only the E gable (H 3.5m; T 0.9m) survives complete with adjacent parts of the N and S walls (int. dim. 5.5m N-S). The E window, now blocked and obscured by ivy, has two round-headed lights in a large embrasure (Wth 1.4m; H 2.3m) with dressed sandstone ingoings, but the central mullion is missing. There is a statue shelf on the inside of the gable at N. A small cross, and a 17th century graveslab recorded by Power (1938a, 57-8) are now missing, but three crudely decorated headstones also mentioned by him and probably of 18th century in date are close to the graveyard perimeter at S. The ocatagonal stoup or font also mentioned by Power (ibid.) is the base of the stem of a wayside cross with pyramidal stops (H 0.42m), now inside the graveyard entrance at N. Archaeological testing (05E0310) of an extensive area c. 60m to the NW and N failed to produce any related material (Noonan and Kearns 2005), although prehistoric material (WA034-075----) was recovered c. 150m to the SW. (Power 1898a, 202-6) Noonan, D. and Kearns, F. (2005) Archaeological testing at Aglish, Co. Waterford. Unpublished report. Daniel Noonan Archaeologicl Consultancy. Power, Rev. P. (1898a) Ancient ruined churches of Co. Waterford, WAJ 4, 83-95, 195-219. Power, Rev. P. (1938a) Some old churches of Decies, JRSAI, 68, 55-68. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Waterford' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1999). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Revised by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 27 September 2011