Emlaghfad Church (in Ruins)

In Emlaghfad graveyard (SL033-144002-). A C of I church built on or near the site of the medieval parish church of Emlaghfad and the site of a monastery founded by St Colmcille (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 383). This is a rectangular church (int.: 21.3m E-W; 6.2m N-S) with a square three-storey tower (int. L 3.8m) at its W end. It is entered through a doorway in the W wall of the tower. This has a limestone door-surround with block-and-start jambs and a prominent keystone. The ground and second floors of the tower and the body of the church are lit by windows with surrounds in the style of the entrance door (all are now blocked up). The first floor of the tower has occulus windows. The W end of the church interior is overgrown with elder trees and a mature tree shelters its E end. The latter area contains a number of 19th-century headstones and one rectangular slab, lying on the ground, with a date of 1709. Floor timbers are missing from the tower; the exterior walls are covered with ivy and there are pyramid pinnacles on the top corners. The style of the church is mid-18th-century; it was replaced in 1818 by a new church in Ballymote (Lewis 1837, vol. 1, 599) 1.2km to NNW. A stretch of the road known as Bothar an Corann (SL033-145----) is c. 0.5km to the N. This is post-1700 AD in date. Compiled by: Archaeological Survey Unit, UCC Date of upload: 04 January 2012