Church (in ruins) — An Clochán (tc An Clochán)

Cloghane Church/Teampall an Chlocháin: The ivy-covered ruins of this largely 13th century church stand in a graveyard on the W shore of the inner reaches of Brandon Bay. The church of 'Clothan' is included in the Papal Taxation List (1302-1307) for the diocese of Ardfert (Cal Docs Ire, V, 295) and appears to have been still in repair in 1615 (Royal Visitation). It was in ruins, however, by the middle of the 18th century (Smith 1756, 69) and the fragmentary remains of the large Protestant church erected in 1828 now occupy the site of the nave. The church measures 5.85m in width internally. Only the E gable and the N and S walls of the chancel are preserved. Low footings, c. 7.4m from the E gable, may be the remains of a structural division of nave and chancel but the interior is now confused by overground tombs. The walls are built of rubble with some boulders; roughly dressed sandstone blocks are evident in the lower courses of the NE quoin. The N wall, 2.15m high, has a modern concrete capping and plaster has been applied randomly to the stonework. The E gable stands almost to full height and the single-light, round-headed E window, 1.66m high, is set back from the external wall face in a chamfered recess; only section of the sill and jambs survive, the latter retaining the sinkings for transverse glazing bars. Internally the light is set in a round-headed embrasure with widely-splayed ingoings and dressed scontions. A rectangular piscina at the E end of the S wall has a roll-mouled arris returned on all sides; its partly projecting shallow basin has a moulded corbel base. A ragged ope in the S wall preserves only the splayed ingoings and lintelled rear arch of its former window. The rectangular doorway in the N wall has chamfered head and jambs rebated for a door which was secured by a draw bar and a bolt. The splayed ingoings are now incomplete and section of the segmental rear arch has fallen. Projecting from the internal face of the S wall, c. 1.75m above present ground level, is a carved stone head, locally regarded as that of the legendary Crom Dubh. Its primitive features are considered by some to be comparable to other Irish stone heads of probable pagan Celtic date (Rynne 1972, 90; Harbison 1973, 23). It was on Domhnach Chrom Dubh that a great pattern used to be held in Cloghane after the pilgrimage to Mount Brandon (KE034-047007-) (MacNeill 1962, 101-5), and Turas an Teampaill included visits to the old church and to the nearby St. Brendan's well (KE035-024----) (An Seabhac 1939, 228-9). Medieval sundial (KE035-025002-) visible in S wall of church. In 2010 a graveyard survey carried out by Laurence Dunne recorded the following details about Cloghane Church: 'The old medieval church and graveyard [KE035-025001-] at Cloghane is situated in the village of the same name on the N side of the Dingle Peninsula and 13km west of the Castlegregory and 15.5km NE of Dingle. The old graveyard contains the relict upstanding remains of the medieval parish church as well as the ruins of a First Fruits Church of Ireland built in 1828 that was built on top of the earlier church. In 1824 a Catholic Chapel was built by the parish priest of Cloghane, Fr. Maurice Moriarty (An Sagart Dubh), on a site along the eastern limits of Cloghane Village and referred to as the old chapel. It was a long slated cruciform structure with the ’entrance on the northern wall facing the altar. The galleries were over the transepts, east and west, and over the entrance’ (O’Sullivan 1931, 481; CCC 2005, 11 16). The chapel was demolished and a new (current) one built between 1898 and 1900 at a new location on the approach to Cloghane with money donated by John Molyneaux P.P. of Cloghane between 1885-1898 (CCC 2005, 11, 16; O’Shea 2005, 75). The earliest historic account of Cloghane Church is an account in the Papal Taxation List (1302-07) for the Deanery of Offeria in Diocese of Ardfert: Clothan, Value 13s 4d, Tenth 16d (CDI, 1896, Vol. 5, 295). The rural deanery of Offeria was the ancient cantred of Uí Fearba one of two on the peninsula. The other being Ossuris or Aes Iorruis. A record from 1615 records that ‘the parsonadges of Cloghane, Dunurly, Kilcowane and Kynard belong to the Abbey of Owney (Awney in Limerick) and are now in the possession of Sir John FitzEdmund deceased (Hickson 1874, 29). In 1756 Charles Smith records in his chapter on the state of all the parishes: Clahane, rectorial, the church in ruins, Patron the bishop (Smith 1756, 37). Of the medieval church of Cloghane, Lewis in 1837 records ’The ruins of the old parish church are still remaining’. John O’Donovan, writing in August 1841, records: The old church is situated on level ground about one hundred paces to the west of the margin of Brandon Bay. It consisted of of nave and choir, the choir twenty-four feet six inches in length and nineteen feet nine inches in breadth, but of the nave cannot be traced, as nothing remains of the building but the east gable and twenty four feet six inches of the length of the side wall. The foundation of the wall that divided the nave from the choir is traceable, but no part of the wall itself is standing. The east window is semi-circular at the top on both sides and formed of chiselled brown sandstone; it measures on the inside about twelve feet in height and exactly seven feet five inches in width, and on the outside seven feet six inches in height and one foot two inches width. At the distance of six feet five inches from the east gable there is on the south wall a window that is destroyed on the outside but in good preservation on the inside, where it is rectangular and formed of cut brown sandstone, and measures four feet seven inches in height and four feet one inch in width. At the distance of three feet six inches from this to the west is a projecting stone in the wall, formed into a representation of a human head and face. It is placed at a height of five feet nine inches above the ground, and believed to represent the head of Crom Dubh...At the distance of fifteen feet six inches from the east gable there is on the north wall a doorway which is destroyed on the inside but in tolerable preservation on the outside where it is rectangular, covered at the top with a lintel and formed of chiselled sandstone of a brownish colour; it is four feet nine inches in height and in width two feet seven and a half inches at the top and two feet eleven and a half inches at the bottom. The lintel is chiselled and measures three feet ten inches in length four and a half inches in thickness and enters the wall one foot. The walls of this church are three feet three inches in thickness and nine feet in height and built of large blocks of brown sandstone regularly laid and cemented with lime and sand mortar. The modern church occupies the site of the nave of this old church. There is a large and much frequented grave yard attached’ (O’Donovan 1983, 111). The graveyard at Cloghane comprises an old medieval burial ground with an additional late 19th century section added at the east. The medieval graveyard section is also very narrow and physically dominated by the extant relict remains of the medieval church ruins that are in turn further supplanted by the larger ruinous 19th century Church of Ireland making the burial ground extremely congested. Large sections of the north and south elevations and the entire east gable of the ruined 13th century medieval parish church of Cloghane are still extant and more or less stand to full height. The ruined church, 8.5m EW x 7.9m NS x 0.94m in thickness, is largely covered in dense ivy, bushes and trees, including holly and elder. Internally the ground level is much higher than its original floor level due to the presence of burials and tombs. The masonry of the medieval church is generally of local small undressed rubble sandstone. Dressed quoins are still extant on the NE and SE corners. Some gritty lime render still survives in patc