Magherabeg Friary

Magherabeg Friary: founded in the 15th century for the Franciscan Third Order Regular by O'Donnell. The friary was occupied in 1601 by the forces of Niall Garbh O'Donnell supporting the English against his cousin, Red Hugh O'Donnell. It was subsequently in the possession of Sir Paul Gore (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 273; Treadwell 1953-5, 513). The ivy-covered ruins consist of a church 28.65m by 6.73m internally and the E range of domestic buildings. The walls are built of roughly-coursed, dressed, blocks with small pinnings; sections of this facing have fallen away, particularly along the interior S wall of the church. The church comprises nave and chancel without structural division. The N and S walls survive to a maximum height of c. 5.2m; most of the E and W gables have fallen. The E window is represented by the N splayed ingoing and a single moulded jamb-and-sill fragment. The window probably had three lights. The SE quoin of the church is obscured by fallen masonry. A large ragged gap about midway along the S wall and a corresponding opening opposite it in the N wall probably indicate the positions of windows. W of the gap in the S wall are the lower jambs, mullion and sill of a blocked-up two-light window with splayed ingoings. The pointed doorway in the S wall has a broach-stop-chamfered W jamb and the E jamb stones are damaged but retain a small bolt-hole in the interior rebate. The cracked lintelled rear-arch has modern iron supports; the fallen ingoings were rebuilt in 1981. The door has a stone sill and inner step; the latter was also partly rebuilt. The W gable has almost completely fallen and the exterior facing only survives on the N. It undoubtedly had a central door, the broken stoup for which remains. Some damaged chamfered fragments lying on the W wall may belong to the door. The doorway at the E end of the N wall is partly blocked-up. The jambs are chamfered but the head has fallen away; the splayed ingoings have a lintelled rear-arch. Beside it is a stoup (the lip is broken) set in a round-headed recess. E of this is a small wall-press. The domestic buildings to the N of the church are represented by fragmentary sections of the E wall, the N return and foundations of the NW corner. The E wall of this range which was two storeys high is continuous with the E gable, and rises from battered lower courses. A number of trees grow in the immediate area of this range, and one has partly dislodged the N section of the E wall. There were probably three rooms on the ground floor. Some 30cms of a vault running E-W projects from the exterior face of the N wall of the church. Below it, two corbels, 1.75m above ground level, and corresponding beam-hole in the interior corner of the E wall indicate the position of the temporary timber supports used in the construction of the vault. This room probably served as a sacristy; there is a wall-press at the S corner of the remaining 1m of E wall. Only the footings of the NE interior corner of the central room remain. The surviving 1.5m corbelled projection at the SE corner of the N room maybe the remains of a vault which ran N-S; the wall is here 3.5m high and has a wall-press on the interior. Beside it to the N are the remains of a splayed window, the N ingoing of which has been dislodged by a tree. (See also Muckross DG099-012-). 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