Church in ruins — Drumlane (lower Loughtee By.)

Situated on the S-facing slope of a broad N-S spur with the northern end of Derrybrick Lough visible to the SE and the northern end of Drumlane Lough visible to the SW, both of which are at the NW edge of the Lough Oughter complex of lakes. The original founder of the early monastery at Drumlane is not known with certainty. St Maodhóg or Mogue, also known as Aidan, who founded a monastery at Ferns (WX015-003002-) and is the patron saint of that diocese, is associated with Drumlane in a late, probably 16th century life, where he is said to have been educated in the company of St. Molaise of Devenish, in Lough Erne (Ó Riain 2011, 432-6). This elaboration is the result of Augustinian pretentions but it obscures the history of the early monastery, which St. Maodhóg is generally credited with founding. St Maodhóg’s relics were kept at Drumlane, and the house-shaped reliquary known as the Breac Maodhóg, dating from the 11th or 12the century and now in NMI, was kept there (Henry 1970, 117-19; Murray 2014). Erenachs, or descendants of the founder, are mentioned in 1025 (AU) and 1059 when Conaing Ua Faircheallaigh, erenach of Drumlane, was also described as the successor of Maodhóg in Leinster and Connaught (AFM). The monastery was re-established as an Augustinian house in 1143-8, probably by St. Malachy or at his suggestion, and it became known as the priory of St Mary, which was under St Mary’s of Kells (ME017-044039-) although it was not listed as a possession of Kells at the Suppression c. 1540 (White 1943, 262-4). There was a fire in 1246 and the present structure may have been built after that catastrophe (Kirk 2022, 40). Indulgences were offered in 1431 and 1436 to raise funds for a cloister, refectory and other buildings which were probably never built, but the money raised probably built much of the present church. Lay coarbs of the O’Farrelly family continued into the 15th century. After the Suppression Drumlane and its possessions was granted to Hugh O’Reilly of the Brenie (Breifne) in 1570 (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 170), and to members of the Dillon family in 1586 (Davies 1948, 94). The church could have continued in use for Protestant worship until a new church was built in 1819 at Killynaher, c. 3.7km to the N (Lewis 1837, vol. 1, 517), since Grose (1791, vol. 2, 63) shows the church at Drumlane as still roofed. The only evidence of the early church is the round tower (CV014-028002-) and the remnants of an ecclesiastical enclosure (diam. c. 220m N-S; c. 200m E-W) in the fields around the church and graveyard. At N the enclosure is bounded by a grass-covered earthen bank (Wth 4m; int. H 0.2m; ext. H 0.6m) and outer fosse (Wth 4m; D 0.3m) that forms the N side of a triangular relict field situated between the car-park and a new graveyard. The boundary is continued by a low earthen bank in the field to the E, and it turns S where it meets the public road and runs past the E edge of the graveyard as a scarp. South of the graveyard it turns W and enters a confused area dominated by elements of a rectangular field system that is probably late medieval or post-medieval in date. Further W the perimeter of the ecclesiastical enclosure turns N and can be traced as the vegetation mark of a fosse that almost connects with the N boundary of the triangular field. The field system consists of rectangular fields (dims c. 30m x c. 30m) defined by broad earthen banks (Wth c. 3m; H c. 0.1-0.2m) or scarps and cover the area of the ecclesiastical enclosure and the ecclesiastical building S of it amounting to about 20 acres (c. 8ha). A section of a road (L 30m; Wth 8.6m) defined by earthen banks (Wth 2.5-4.4m; H 0.1-0.2m) at N and S runs E-W through the fields and other roads could be present. The round tower stands close to the NW angle of the present church and pre-dates it. Its lower courses (ext. diam. 5.1m; H c. 6.7m) are well-set but the top (total surviving H 11.6m) was re-built with a cruder finish (Barrow 1979, 56). The round-headed doorway that has a raised architrave is at the first floor facing SE, and the only surviving window is round-headed and re-set in the upper part of the wall over the doorway (O’Keefe 2004, 143). The floors were supported on off-sets (Barrow 1979, 56-7). Two stones on the lower part of the round tower (H c. 2.2m over ground), facing E and N, have images in relief of a hen and a cock both facing left, which is not fully understood and rarely represented in Ireland (McCabe 2017). The architrave around the doorway could date the tower to the eleventh century. The church (int. dims 32.8m E-W; 7.55m N- S) survives almost complete with coursed limestone walls (T 1-1.1m; H c. 6m), but the W wall only survives (H c. 2.5m) to half its original height. There are numerous external buttresses, particularly at the W end, and the E wall has a base-batter beneath a robbed window that was probably a three-light decorated form and has a drip moulding decorated with three heads. Both the N and S doorways in the nave are pointed and led to external rooms as the door rebates are on the outside, although it is possible that such structures were planned but not built. Just E of the N doorway a rectangular two-light cusped ogee-headed window at an upper level indicates a rood-loft, and an internal wall footing just to the E creates a chancel (int. dim. c. 6.75m E-W) to the E and a nave (int. dim. c. 10.65m E-W) to the W, with three closely-spaced pointed windows in the S wall of the nave. The W window is re-built, but the central and E windows have two lights in pointed frames and have external drip mouldings. The chancel has two robbed tomb niches internally on the S wall, both with large triangular pediments that have been removed apart from one decorated crocket. The E window on the S wall is a rectangular insertion with one or two lights and an external hood moulding that was probably square but is now largely missing. At the W end of the nave the round-headed doorway with dog-tooth decoration and no rebate for a door suggests that the W wall at least may have been built early in the thirteenth century, but most of the church’s features date to the fifteenth century, as would most of the thirty or so architectural fragments that are present. (Davies 1948, 83-94) This is a National Monument in state care (No. 4). See the attached aerial view from SW _1 The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cavan' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1995). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Revised by: Michael Moore Date of revision: 27 July 2018 Murray, G. 2014 The Breac Maodhóg: a unique Irish reliquary. In Scott, B. & W. Nolan (eds) Cavan: History and Society, 1-41. Dublin, Geography Publications Kirk, C. 2022 The Church and Priory at Drumlane. The Spark: border counties local history review, 34, 38-40.