Church in Mountsilk, County Galway

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At W foot of an esker ridge running roughly N-S, in undulating farmland. Known locally as the 'Old church of Laught' (Claffey 1983, 156-7), it comprises a poorly preserved long rectangular building (N-S; L 22.3m, Wth 6m), probably a pre-emancipation RC chapel. The doorway, of which only the lower jambs survive, is roughly centrally placed in E wall, and is approached by a series of steps descending from the ridge summit. There are robbed window opes in N and S gables, and a small stone-built altar at S gable is set on a raised area defined by four steps. Immediately to N of this, traces of an internal subdivision are discernible underfoot; the floor itself appears to consist of grassed-over flagstones. The E and W walls appear to have been crudely repaired and traces of plaster are visible internally at S end. Directly inside the doorway is a broken holy water stoup which has been repaired and mounted on a stone plinth. The church is centrally placed within a small subrectangular enclosure (N-S 37m, E-W 20m) defined on S, W and N sides by a low bank which fades into the slope at E. There are traces of an external fosse along W side. A spring well lies close by to SW. Claffey (ibid., 94) claims that this is the 'probable location of a branch of the Franciscan community at kiltullagh' (see GA018-027001-). II - North Galway'.

From the National Monuments Service (Archaeological Survey of Ireland) record GA045-028001

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Picture notes

Didier Descouens, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
liam murphy, Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
Computer-made picture. It does not show this playground.
Christian Pirkl, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0 at
ClintMalpaso, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0

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