St. Marys Church — Inishcaltra OR Holy Island

Situated on a S-facing slope within a graveyard (CL029-009009-) some 43m S of St. Brigid’s church (CL029-009006-) on Inis Cealtra in Lough Derg. St. Mary’s is the largest (ext. dims. 18.57 by 8.72m) and most southerly church on the island, originally constructed in the late 12th/early 13th century but used as a medieval parish church and much reconstructed subsequently. It has a W doorway (Wth 1.07m; H 2m) with a slightly pointed arch and a simple external moulding of early 13th-century date. Two other later doorways, one in the S wall (Wth 1.42m; H 2.32m) 5.3m from the W gable and one in the N wall (Wth 1.12m; H 1.84m), are now blocked up. The N doorway is only visible externally. The church was not well lit. There were only two windows, a tall single lancet in the E end (Wth 0.23m, remaining H 1.2m with a deeply splayed embrasure) and another single round-headed lancet on the S wall to light the altar. This was also deeply splayed (int. H 2.5m; Wth 1.5m). There is an unusual offset in the S wall starting just W of the window and extending along the length of the church but not reaching the top of the wall. The wall may have been thickened at some stage by adding a new face to the inside. There are two aumbries, one in the S wall near the E corner and one in the N wall near the E end. The head of an ogee-headed window is mounted inside the upper portion of the blocked-up doorway on the S wall and the lower part of a window is placed on the ground beneath. It is not clear where these belonged originally. There is a buttress against the N wall externally with a water channel or slop-stone pierced through. An elaborately carved altar at the E end formed part of an O’Brien wall monument (CL029-009123-) the upper portion of which is mounted on the S wall. Four cross-slabs (CL029-009071-, CL029-009100-, CL029-009108-, CL029-009202-) are mounted on the walls in the interior. Iniscealtra is a national monument in state care, no. 5. (Macalister 1916, 130-31; de Paor 2013, 28) Compiled by: Mary Tunney Date of upload: 13 October 2015