Templemoyle Old Church — Greencastle

The ruins of this church, called Templemoyle, are densely overgrown with ivy causing the walls to bulge in places. Built of rubble and split stone, the surviving N, E and S walls are 3.5m high. There are angle buttresses at the SE and NE corners, and two other buttresses midway along the N and S walls. No visible trace of the W gable and adjoining buttresses survive. The upper section of the E gable has fallen away, and the E window is reduced to a featureless gap. There are the remains of a single window in the N wall and two others in the S wall. The heads, jambs and most of the splayed ingoings are either obscured by vegetation or missing. An opening in the S wall between the windows is possibly the site of a door, the jambs and ingoings of which have fallen away. It has a segment-headed rear-arch and is partly blocked-up with a modern drystone wall. There is a segment-headed recess in ruins at the E end of the S wall, .92m by .32m deep by 1.1m high; possibly a large wall press or small sedilia. The church stands isolated in a field in good land close to Greencastle (DG022-003-). The above description was derived from the 'Archaeological Survey of County Donegal. A description of the field antiquities of the County from the Mesolithic Period to the 17th century.' Compiled by: Brian Lacey with Eamon Cody, Claire Cotter, Judy Cuppage, Noel Dunne, Vincent Hurley, Celie O'Rahilly, Paul Walsh and Seán Ó Nualláin (Lifford: Donegal County Council, 1983). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated. Date of upload: 22 September 2008 Adjacent to church As part of the planning conditions for the proposed construction of six houses in Greencastle, Co. Donegal, by Donegal County Council, an area 65m by 30m was topsoil-stripped under archaeological supervision. Because the site is adjacent to a field containing the ruins of Templemoyle Church, it was possible that burial remains and other significant archaeological deposits would be encountered. Topsoil immediately overlay the undisturbed, natural, orange/brown, slaty, gravelly subsoil, and it was clear that nothing of archaeological significance lay within the development area. (Excavations Bulletin 1999) Dermot G. Moore, ADS Ltd, Unit 48, Westlink Enterprise Centre, 30-50 Distillery Street, Belfast, BT12 5BJ.