Freneystown Church (Tiscoffin)

Detached three- or four-bay double-height Board of First Fruits Church of Ireland church, built 1796, on a rectangular plan comprising two- or three-bay double-height nave opening into single-bay double-height shallow chancel (east); single-bay two-stage tower to entrance (west) front on a square plan. In ruins, 1900. Roof now missing. Overgrown coursed rubble limestone battered walls retaining fragments of rendered surface finish with hammered limestone flush quoins to corners; part overgrown coursed rubble limestone walls (tower) retaining fragments of rendered surface finish with margined tooled cut-limestone stringcourses including margined tooled cut-limestone stringcourse (bell stage) supporting battlemented parapet having overgrown coping. Openings not visible. Lancet or pointed-arch window opening (tower) with margined tooled cut-limestone block-and-start surround having chamfered reveals framing rubble stone infill. Roundels (bell stage) with red brick voussoir surrounds. Interior in ruins. Set in landscaped grounds with piers to perimeter having cut-granite shallow pyramidal capping supporting wrought iron double gates.

A church erected with financial support from the Board of First Fruits (fl. 1711-1833) representing an integral component of the late eighteenth-century ecclesiastical heritage of County Kilkenny with the architectural value of the composition, one potentially 'incorporat[ing] substantial remains of [a] medieval church' [SMR KK015-030004-], suggested by such attributes as the standardised nave-with-entrance tower plan form, aligned along a liturgically-correct axis; the "pointed" profile of the openings underpinning a contemporary Georgian Gothic theme; and the battlements embellishing the somewhat squat tower as a picturesque eye-catcher in the landscape.