Church in Labbamolaga Middle, County Cork

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Towards the SSW corner of a graveyard (CO010-003002-), within an early ecclesiastical enclosure (CO010-003001-) and c. 3m S of a later church (CO010-003003-). Ruin of a rectangular church (6.33m E-W; 4.45m N-S), with antae (Wth 0.7m) at each end. Leask (1955, 62) dates it to the 9th or 10th centuries. It was identified by Power (1932b, 30, 53) as Eidhnen Molaga, the chief church of Tuath O Cuscraidh Sleibhe. The walls (Wth c. 0.75m) survive to a height of c. 1.3m; no opes are apparent apart from the W doorway, but Cochrane (1912, 4) states that in 1845 the E gable and window were still perfect, as well as a stone altar and a window in the S wall. The W wall has a central doorway (Wth 0.65m): the door is formed by two jambstones supporting a lintel, each cut from a single block of sandstone; the opening is bordered by a projecting architrave; the jambstones incline slightly inwards at the top. Stonework above the W doorway is an OPW restoration based on an earlier sketch (Leask ibid., 61). Crawford (1914, 172) illustrates a heart-shaped finial stone with two sunken panels and projecting 'wings', which probably topped the gable of this church. Inside the church are a saint's tomb, known as 'St Molaga's Bed' (CO010-003005-) and (formerly) a stone cross (CO010-003006-). Also on inspection were recorded a half-cylindrical sandstone fragment (L 0.32m; Wth 0.41m), hollowed in the centre, possibly part of a column or cross-shaft; and a cut-sandstone fragment which may form part of a round-arched window head. This is a National Monument in State Ownership (no. 18).

From the National Monuments Service (Archaeological Survey of Ireland) record CO010-003004

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Valerie M Cahill, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
john salter, Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
Maker not stated on source page, www.wikidata.org
Peter Wood, Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
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Maker not stated on source page, www.megalithic.co.uk
Maker not stated on source page, monumentalireland.ie
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