R. C. Chapel (in Ruins)

The private church of the Catholic Lords of Upper Ossory, situated c. 100m W of tower house (LA035-022001-). It is roofless since Cromwellian times, and no burials have taken place here since the mid-nineteenth century (Carrigan 1905, vol. 2, 233). A late sixteenth-century undivided church (L c. 19.7m; Wth c. 9.2m) built of roughly coursed limestone with an external base batter. Remains of doorway in the S wall, as well as two single-light windows with splayed opes, and a dressed limestone piscina. Single light ogee-headed window visible in W gable, and in E gable a two-light dressed limestone window with a rounded head on the inner face. Corbels, which carried a gallery at the W end project from the side walls. Desribed by Carrigan as 'The Castle Chapel, or, as it is called, "the Church", stands in ruins, about 100 yds. west of the castle (LA035-022001-). It was the private chapel of the Catholic Lords of Upper Ossory. It is a rectangle, measuring 65.5 ft. by 30 ft. externally, and 58 ft. 3 in. by 24.25 ft. internally, the side-walls are 11 or 12 ft. high. The east window is of cut stone and chamfered; it was divided by an upright mullion; the external frame is 6 ft. high and 2 ft. wide; the arch stones are gone; there is a very plain dripstone. There is a piscina at the Epistle side of the altar; it is of cut-stone, Gothic, and slightly ornamented. The doorway, in the south wall, is destroyed, on the outside. There is an ogee-headed lancet window, of cut-stone, high up in the west gable. Corbels for the support of a gallery project from the sides.' (Carrigan 1905, vol. 2, 233) The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Laois' (Dublin Stationery Office, 1995) compiled by P. David Sweetman, Olive Alcock and Bernie Moran. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 17 December 2007

The R. C. Chapel in Castlequarter was built as the private church of the Catholic Lords of Upper Ossory, likely in the late medieval period, and reflects a domestic devotional style. It is significant as a religious and aristocratic site associated with the pre-Reformation Catholic gentry of the region.