Garfinny Church (in ruins) — An Ghairfeanaigh

National Monument No. 64. Garfinny Church/Teampall na Gairfeanaí: The site of a 13th century parish church (Cal. doc. Ire., V, 297). In 1615 both 'the church and chancel of Garryffyagh were up' (Royal Visitation), but the building was in ruins by 1756 (Smith, 70). In 1841 only section of the E gable, 1.37m thick, stood to a maximum height of 3.66m; the E window, set internally in a rectangular embrasure, was partially preserved and had a pointed sandstone head (OSL). No visible remains of the church survive. It stood in a graveyard c. 1.5km ENE of Dingle; the site is now a National Monument. In 2010 a graveyard survey carried out by Laurence Dunne recorded the following details about the site of Garfinny Church: 'Garfinny Graveyard is situated on the S side of the Dingle Peninsula circa 4km E of Dingle. It is situated on an elevated site at 50m OD on the lower SE slopes of the Sugar Loaf hill of the Slieve Mish Mountains with expansive southerly views over Trabeg, Dingle Bay and the Iveragh Peninsula in the background. No physical remains of the medieval church are visible above ground today. Garfinny is recorded in the Papal Taxation list of 1302-07: Church of Gorienath Value 26s 8d, Tenth 2s 8d (Cal Docs Ire, 1302-07, Vol 5. 297; King 1931, 156; O’Sullivan 1931, 46; Cuppage 1984, 369). In the Annates of the Kerry Diocese the minister at Garfinny in 1503 was recorded as Philip Fitzgerald (McKenna 1985, 122). A record from 1615 records that the church at Garfinny was standing ‘The Vicarages of Garfynnagh and Kildrom, valor £3 both, sequestered to Nicholas Averie, minister, both Church and Chancell upp’ (Hickson 1874, 29). The sequestered minister, Mr. Nicholas Averie also had the livings of Stradbally and Ventry (ibid 27). The incumbent minister for Garroonagh and Kildrom was Sigismund Corkeran (ibid 30). In 1756 Charles Smith records that Garfinny Church was in ruins ‘Garfinagh, one third vicarial, the church in ruins. Patron: the Bishop. Proxy 3s 4d’ (Smith 1756, 38). An account of Garfinny by Lewis in 1837 records: ‘The living is a vicarage, in the diocese of Ardfert and Aghadoe, and in the patronage of the Bishop: the rectory is impropriate in Lord Ventry. The tithes, amounting to £138 9s 2 1/2d, are payable in the proportion of two-thirds to the impropriator and one-third to the vicar. The glebe belongs to Lord Ventry (Lewis 1837, 40). The small partially enclosed rectangular graveyard [KE043-228001-] of Garfinny and its associated glebe land is denoted on the 1st Ed. OS map, sheet 43 of 1841. The medieval church, now disappeared, is clearly denoted as a rectangular hatched area. John O’Donovan, writing in August 1841, records: ’Only the east gable, in an imperfect tottering state, of the old church of Garfinny now remains, the highest part of it not exceeding twelve feet at present. The foundation of the remainder of the building cannot be traced. It was constructed of green stone and clay mortar. There is a window on this east gable large and square inside of the same construction with the rest of the wall. A large flagstone broken across in the middle, is placed over it at the top. On the outside the window is pointed and constructed of chiselled (reddish) brown stone. The south side if it and bottom part are destroyed; the north side and top stone remain. One stone is out of the lower part of the north side. Its height outside was four feet seven inches. The thickness of the gable at the window is four feet six inches. The graves rise as high as the bottom of the window in the interior, and nearly so on the exterior. There is here a large burial ground on a sloping tract near a hill to the north-east (O’Donovan 1983, 131). In the OSNB of 1841 O’Donovan records: ‘Garfinny Church situated in the centre of the townland of Garfinny and about three chains N.W. of an old road leading thro’ this land. The only part of this ruin now standing, which is of very old structure is the E gable, in height about 12 feet and the same breadth at its base. It is placed on a green rocky eminence in the centre of a spacious graveyard about three chains long and two and a half broad without any enclosure, except the E, W & S sides which are distinguished by the ruin of stone ditch or Fosse' (OSNB). There are no visible, above ground, coherent, remains of the medieval church of Garfinny today. The last record of the visible ruins of the church at Garfinny was in 1841 (O’Donovan 1983, 131; OSNB 1841). There were only two architectural fragments (260 & 296) from the church recorded in the course of this survey. One of the fragments (260) is reused as a gravemarker and features a large notch in one side, possibly originally used as a door socket in the church? The other architectural fragment (296) is a featured in the front of an overgrown unnamed tomb (295). It comprises of an ogee head of a narrow single light window of local red sandstone and is almost identical to another recorded in Ballyduff Graveyard recently. A concentration of early graves within a somewhat raised platform area of the interior may reflect the location of the medieval church' (Dunne 2010, 1-9). The above description is derived from J. Cuppage, ‘Corca Dhuibhne. Dingle Peninsula archaeological survey. Ballyferriter. Oidhreacht Chorca Dhuibhne’ (1986), no. 992. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. See attached photographs courtesy of Laurence Dunne Revised by: Caimin O'Brien based on details provided by Laurence Dunne Date of revised upload: 29 June 2022