What is recorded here

Four centuries of ruin and rebuilding compressed into one tower and hall. Knights Hospitallers held St Michael's from 1212, people buried beside it, abandoned its chancel, rebuilt it twice, then turned the ruins into a community hall. The old font left the wall and moved to Millicent, carrying some of the place's memory elsewhere. What remains is not a failed church but a life in stages: prayer, neglect, invention, and use.

According to Bradley et al. (1986, vol. 2, 142-44), the former parish church of 'St Michael's' was originally held by the Knights Hospitallers and is first referred to in 1212. Described as a parish church in 1307, by 1615 the chancel was in ruins. Located in a graveyard (KD014-0026011-) which may also occupy the site of the Early Christain monastery 'Cluain Damh' (KD014-026017-). The structure on the site today comprises a possibly 17th century, rectangular, four-storied, battlemented, west-tower (ext. dims. L c. 5.5m NNE-SSW; Wth c. 4.5m) onto which an apsidal church (dims. L c. 26m ESE-WNW; Wth 10m) was built in the late-18th c. The remains were renovated in the 1980's to serve as a community hall. The tower is entered through a modern, pointed-arched doorway in the S wall, but the original, partly blocked, round-arched doorway survives in the W wall. New floors, at different levels to the original, were inserted and the interior was plastered. The tower's windows and battlements date to c. 1800. A 12th/13th century granite font (KD014-026010-) found in the wall of the tower was moved to the church of 'St Michael and All Angels' at Millicent, where its present location is designated KD014-053----. Access from the tower to the church is through a round-arched door. Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy Date of upload: 10 June 2011

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