Church (in Ruins)

This was the Church of Ireland parish church of Castlerea from 1703 to 1819 when Trinity Church, now a heritage centre, was built c. 200m to the S (Trohy 1994; Wall 1994). It is situated on the S bank of the ESE-WNW Francis River in Castlerea town. It is a nave and chancel church with N and S transepts. The nave (int. dims c. 10m E-W; 6.1m N-S), whose W wall and adjacent parts of the N and S walls do not survive has a single window embrasure in the long walls (H 3.4m). The chancel (int. dims 5.4m E-W; 2.9m N-S) has a round-headed window (Wth 1.18m; H 3m) with flanking lights (Wth 0.54m; H 2.05m) in the E wall and a robbed doorway at the E end of the N wall. The N and S transepts (int. dims 2.4m N-S at W to 4m N-S at E; 8.6m E-W) hardly survive and are featureless. The church is within a subrectangular graveyard (RO026-035002-) (dims 58m E-W; 45m N-S at W to 55m N-S at E) defined by masonry walls, and contains 19th and 20th century graves. Archaeological testing (03E1798) on the roadway E of the graveyard failed to produce any burials or related material (Fitzpatrick 2004, 13; 2006b). Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 24 August 2010

The church at Demesne was built as the Church of Ireland parish church for Castlerea, serving in that capacity from 1703 to 1819; it is likely of early 18th-century construction and was replaced by Trinity Church to the south. Its significance lies in its historical role as the principal place of worship for the town during the early modern period.