Outlined — Ráith

Raymunterdoney Old Church (DG025-029003-): Repaired or rebuilt post 1622 (see Royal Commission, 218) this parish church continued in use until the new church of St Paul's was built in 1805 (Fagan Bk. 3, 1-2, Leslie 1940, 120). The remains are vested in the Office of Public Works as a national monument (no. 23). The walls of the church, 14.6m by 5.9m internally, stand to full height and are built of rubble with ashlar quoins; the SW and NW only, being dressed. The presence of two punch-dressed blocks in the latter, two others cemented to the sill of the westernmost window in the S wall and the doorway in the W gable with stop-chamfered jambs and pointed head, suggest the re-use of these fragments from an earlier church. The S wall has four round-headed windows with splayed ingoings. There is a similar larger blocked-up window with flat rear-arch in the E gable. The outlines of two other blocked-up windows can be traced in the N wall. The Office of Public Works has erected the high cross (DG025-029001-) on a plinth against the interior face of the N wall and have flush-pointed the masonry. The 1754 aedicule of the Olphert family (Fagan Bk. 3, 2) which was set on the interior face of the W gable is broken and no trace of the inscribed tablet survives; sections of the broken columns and moulded frame are cemented to the window sills. 8m W of the SW corner of the church and in the graveyard (DG025-029007-) which surrounds it, there is a large flattish subrectangular basin-stone (DG025-029004-) .8m x .85m x .15m. A depression .64m in diameter and 0.1m deep is carved in it. Also, in the NE corner of the graveyard is a standing stone (DG025-029002-) 2.1m high x 1.17m wide at base x .14m thick; N-S. The site is located in low-lying, wet land, close to the sea. It was believed by O'Donovan to be the site of the early ecclesiastical settlement, Rath Finan (O'Flanagan 1927, 39). 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