Church (in Ruins)

Situated atop hillock with good views of surrounding countryside. Rathgarve church ruins stand in the centre of a D-shaped graveyard (WM003-068001-) with possible medieval roadway running N-S forming E boundary of graveyard. A tower house (WM003-066----) and mill (WM003-066002-) stands 430m to the S with a wayside cross (WM003-044----) 490m to the NNW, a 17th century wayside cross (WM003-069----) lies 100m to S with motte and bailey (WM003-070----) 115m to SSE. Described in 1980 as 'The church is a plain rectangular almost featureless ruin of a stone built structure (int. dims. 15.3m E-W ; 5.7m N-S; wall T 0.9m) with its long axis lying E-W. Only the W gable survives to near the original height while the N, S & E walls only survive to a max. height of 1.75m. The walls are built of small blocks of rough undressed stone laid in fairly regular courses and bonded with mortar. There is a plain rectangular window ope in the W gable, this has a flat, roughly built arch across its top. Opposing gaps in the N & S walls W of their midpoints may represent the sites of doorways but this is uncertain. The E half of the church is filled with burials of 19th and 20th century & the W end also seems disturbed. The graveyard (WM003-068001-) is a roughly D-shaped enclosure bounded by a post-1700 stone wall with entrance gate and stile NE. The site is on a rise on the summit of a large N-S ridge in undulating pasture with very good views all round.' (SMR file 1980). Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 19 July 2010