Loughlohery Church (in ruins)

On a gentle W-facing slope of ridge, in rolling pasture. Roughly centrally placed within a fairly rectangular graveyard (TS082-003001-) there is a simple undivided church (14.47m E-W x 7.4m N-S externally), aligned E-W, composed of limestone rubble, roughly coursed. The church has been cleaned and repair work has been carried out in recent years. There is a large heap of rubble piled up in the interior in the SW corner, with smaller stones piled in the NW corner. The N wall is largely collapsed, with only lower portions surviving for most of the wall. The SE, SW and NW angles have been rebuilt. The E gable (0.88m T) survives to a height of c. 5.5m above the exterior and has a centrally placed, single-light, round-headed window with chequer-board decoration on the upper S jamb. Internally, N of the E window and 0.8m above int. ground level, a well-cut limestone corbel (0.11m T x 0.39m Wth) projects out by 0.33m. It has been suggested that this was a statue support (OPW Correspondence). The S wall (H 2.3m above ext. ground level; T 0.86m) has the remains of a window at the E end, but only the W splay partially survives. At the W end of the S wall there is a large break in masonry and a door jamb crudely inserted at the base of the W side of this break. A later vault, now grassed over, has been built up against the W gable (H 4.3m above ext. ground level) which has no visible features. There is a gap at the W end of the N wall (Wth 0.98m), probably the doorway. At the NE angle there is one coping stone in situ, terminating the gable 2.85m above the external ground level. Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 26 August 2011