Church (in ruins) — Purcellsinch

Approximately 2.5km E of the medieval city of Kilkenny (KK019-026----), on a gentle S-facing slope. It is currently within Purcellsinch industrial estate and c. 20m S of the NW-SE Kilkenny to Waterford railway line. The church is associated with St Molaga or Malog, who, according to tradition, came from Wales to assist St. Patrick in his missionary work (O’Kelly 1969, 92). Described by Carrigan (1905, vol. 3, 264) as the, ‘ancient parish church of Kilmologga’ with both gables gone and ‘most of the side-walls remain to a height of six or eight feet [1.8-2.4m]. In the east end of the north wall is a small window, broken on the outside, round-headed on the inside, and unmistakably Celtic…The doorway appears to have been situated towards the west end of the north wall, where a large gap now appears in the masonry. Kilmologga church is of earlier date than the Anglo-Norman Invasion, and may most probably be assigned to the 11th century’. Carrigan also mentions that the parish of Kilmologga, ‘was appropriated to the Priory of St. John, Kilkenny [KK019-026068-], sometime before the year 1300; and became merged in the parish of St. John’s, Kilkenny, at the Reformation’ (ibid.). A poorly preserved rectangular nave and chancel church (int. dims. 9m E-W x 7m N-S) constructed of roughly coursed sandstone rubble. Only a portion of the N wall of the chancel (L 5.8m; H 2.2m) and nave (L 1.3m; T 0.73m) survive; the footings of the E gable and S wall are visible but are overlain with collapsed masonry. Within the N wall of the chancel there is the embrasure of a pointed window (int. dims. 1.6m x 0.48m) and a rectangular aumbry (dims. 0.45m x 0.34m; D 0.3m) at the E end, as well as two putlog holes, one at either end of this wall. There is no enclosed graveyard associated with the church. Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 5 October 2020