Church (in ruins) — Killeenavarra

On the SE edge of a prominent ridge in pastureland. Though marked on the OS maps as ‘Church (in Ruins)’, this large building consists of a church and, most likely, associated domestic buildings. A plinth is visible all around it. At least two phases of construction are evident in the church (>16.3m E-W; 6m N-S). The earlier phase, medieval in date, is represented by the bulk of the wall fabric, which is constructed of fairly evenly coursed medium-sized limestone blocks, and a flat-headed window in the N wall. A round-headed doorway towards the W end of this wall appears to have been reinserted there. An internal N-S dividing wall is evident to the E of it. Sometime in the 18th or early 19th century the church appears to have been refurbished as a mortuary chapel. This involved rebuilding the W gable and repairing the S end of the E gable and inserting a centrally placed cusped pointed twin-light window; there is also a small alcove at the S end of this wall. The later W gable was built inside the line of the original one; the N and S side-walls extend beyond it, that to the S (L 5m) is incorporated into the graveyard wall (GA113-129001-). A large uninscribed stone vault to the W of the internal wall is possibly of 19th century date and a graveslab (GA113-129001-) to its E is dated 1687. The possible N-S running domestic building (16.3m N-S; 5.3m E-W), which is constructed of larger roughly coursed limestone blocks, abuts the church at SE and is two storeys high. Its E wall projects c. 0.2m beyond the E gable of the church; a large breach towards the N end this wall is partially blocked up. Another blocked ope centrally located in the W wall may be that of the doorway that accessed the building. Another ruined doorway is also visible at 1st-floor level at the N end of this wall. Widows include single-lights on the ground floor and single and two-light ogee-headed windows at 1st-floor level. Small alcoves are visible at the S end of both of the side-walls. Traces of a vaulted roof are visible above the windows in the S wall. Corbels at 1st-floor level along this wall suggest the former presence of a mural passage across the wall; a doorway at its E end accessed the 1st floor of another building or annexe which projects from the SE corner of the building. The function of the latter building is unclear. It is rectangular in plan (3.2m N-S; 2.2m E-W) and is also two storeys high; beam slots in its E and W walls again indicate the 1st-floor level. The ground floor is divided by an N-S running wall. Access to the section to the W of the dividing wall is via a flat-headed doorway in the W wall at 1st-floor level. This suggests that the ground floor was accessed by a trapdoor and ladder. A robbed out doorway in the N wall accesses the ground floor to the E of the dividing wall. (O’Flanagan 1927 Vol. 1, 367-8; McCaffrey 1952, 247, no. 7) Compiled by: Galway Archaeological Survey, UCG Date of upload: 28 February 2020