Church in ruins — Ardaloo

In the angle formed by the junction of the rivers Nore and Dinin. A broad high gravel ridge terminates a little before the river confluence. It slopes very steeply on its E and S side down to the river flood plain and rather more gently down to the Nore on the W. The upper and W side of the ridge is largely reclaimed pasture. From the top of the ridge there are very fine views in all directions. Ardaloo was a grange of the Augustinian Priory of Kells (KK027-029004-), which lies c. 19km to the S (Carrigan 1905, vol. 2, 207-8; Clyne 2007, 33-5). Carrigan (ibid. 207) gives the history as follows, ‘In 1203, William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke, granted and confirmed to the Priory of Kells, in pure and perpetual alms, two carucates of land in Ardelouth. The land thus granted was leased by Reginald, the first Prior, to Simon fitz John Layles, but was restored by Simon’s son, William fitz Simon, to Prior Germanus, by deed of Dec. 24th, 1267. The church of Ardeluth is mentioned among the churches included in the Deanery of Odoch, in a Taxation of Ossory drawn up about 1300. In 1412 the chapel (capella) of Ardelooth was confirmed to the Priory of Kells, by King Henry IV. In 1540, Philip Howleghan, the last Prior, was seised, inter alia, of “three messuages, fifty acres of arable land and twenty of pasture, with the appurtenances, in Ardeloghe.” Thomas, Earl of Ormond, received a grant of Ardelowe from the Crown in 1578’. Only the SW angle (W gable L 1-1.65m; S wall 2-2.55m; H 2-2.4m) of a rectangular roughly coursed rubble limestone church (dims. c. 12m x 7.6m; wall T c. 0.76m), orientated E-W, survives upstanding. According to Carrigan (ibid. 208), ‘The part of the south side-wall still standing, is supported by a buttress extending along its full length; another buttress supported the east end of the same wall, and though the wall itself is here fallen, the buttress remains uninjured. The entrance door, framed with unhewn stones, was in the south side-wall, between the buttresses, but only one side of it is left. This church is called “The Monastery Church”’. The buttresses mentioned by Carrigan are probably a base-batter. Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 2 June 2020