Castles in ruins; Church & School — Callan South

St Mary's medieval parish church is centrally placed within the walled town of Callan (KK026-010----), at the junction of Green Street and Mill Street. The founding of the town is credited to William Marshall (died 1219), who gave the town its first charter in 1217. According to Carrigan (1905, vol. 3, 297) Marshall also built the church, which is supported in documentary evidence by references to one Thomas Parson of Callan in charters around 1215. However, Walsh (1963, 14) suggests a slightly later candidate, Hugh de Mapilton, Bishop of St. Canice’s Cathedral in Kilkenny from 1251, as having built the church. Following the Reformation the church became a place of Protestant worship, returning briefly to the Roman Catholics following the Rising of 1641 (Dolan 2000, 105). In 1731 the W end was in need of repair and the following year the N and S chapels are mentioned as needing repair (ibid.). By 1799 the nave of the church was considered a ruin, while the chancel was kept in repair and used as the C of I parish church (ibid.). In 1837 the chancel and the S side chapel were re-reroofed, the masonry of the E gable of the S aisle of the nave being hacked away to carry the new roof across it (ibid.). In 1949 the nave and tower were taken into guardianship by the Commissioners of Public Works and conservation work was carried out between 1949 and 1952 (ibid.). In 1959, following subsidence, the S arcade of the nave was recorded, taken down and rebuilt on a modern concrete foundation (ibid.). By 1974 the chancel was closed for public worship and it was transferred to State care in 1976 (ibid., 108). A roughly coursed limestone rubble nave (int. dims. 20.65m E-W; 20.37m N-S including side aisles, 7.47m central nave) and chancel (int. dims. 18m E-W; 6.1m N-S; S wall T 1.45m) 15th-century church with a 13th-century five-storey tower at the W end. The W tower has a low base-batter around the N, W and S side which terminates at a two-course sandstone string-course which has been largely cut back flush with the masonry of the wall, while the higher base-batter of the nave and chancel terminates at a limestone string-course. On the W face of the tower there is a central break (Wth 1.6m) in the sandstone string-course where a doorway, now blocked-up, had been broken through. The original quoins, most of which on the NW angle are sandstone, are chamfered. In the lower W face of the tower, at first-floor level, there is a two-light trefoil-headed mullion and transomed window with a pointed quatrefoil in the apex above. This window appears to have been assembled using components of other windows from the original 13th-century church, though the long splaying embrasure appears original. The second-floor is lit by two very small loops, in the N and S walls respectively. There is a broken out window in the W face at third-floor level. The top floor with its chamfered flat and pointed windows and the parapet with crow-stepped crenellations are later 15th century additions. Within the interior of the church, the high pointed arch in the E wall of the tower has been blocked up and into it a pointed doorway with chamfered jambs, terminating in a barred broach stop, was inserted at ground level and a later rather crude flat-headed doorway inserted at first-floor level. The large blocked arch has sandstone surrounds, only a small section of which survive, as does the lowest sandstone jamb on either side, with the chamfer terminating in a scroll motif. Above this arch there is a rectangular blocked opening, with voussoirs above. A steep gable line has been cut into the tower and above this are the remains of the coping of an earlier gable. There are two crude loops on the uppermost floor of the E face. According to Walsh (1963, 15) when describing the tower, ‘the lower part of the building was divided in two by a mortar and stone arched ceiling this latter was taken down a year ago [c. 1962], as it was no longer safe; about 15 feet[c. 4.5m] were added to the top of the Tower’. The scar of this stone vault is visible on the N and S face internally as are traces of where the vault cut across the window embrasure in the W wall, indicating that the vault was inserted, probably in the later medieval period. Both the chancel and the nave, with its gable-ended side aisles (Wth 3.8m), are mid- to late 15th-century in date, beginning c. 1460 (Leask 1985, vol. 3, 83). Between the nave and aisles are arcades, each of four pointed arches, resting on piers, square and chamfered on the N and octagonal on the S. The arches have chamfered soffit ribs carried on pointed corbels. The church was entered through opposing doorways in the N and S walls at the W end of the nave. The round-arched N doorway has unusually deep moulded jambs (O’Donovan 2012, 191-3). The hood-moulding around the N doorway is supported by carved angels. Above this is a carving of a woman wearing typical 15th-century ‘double-henim’ head-dress. Leask suggests that this represents the benefactor of the rebuild, probably an Ormond lady (OPW correspondence, 21 May 1948). The round-headed S doorway has angels whose gowns turn into intertwined vines. Internally there are steps down from the S doorway into the interior. There is a broken stoup resting on a pointed corbel of polygonal plan immediately E of both doorways, internally. The windows in the N wall of the aisle consist of two-light ogees, cusped and uncusped, with hollow spandrels within segmental and pointed-segmental-headed embrasures. Those in the opposite S wall are similar, except the embrasures are round-headed and taller, with cut-stone soffits and sloping bases. The traceried windows, in the E and W gables of the aisles and in the E gable of the chancel, display a variety of forms and styles, both cusped and uncusped, the patterns for which appear to be taken from a book of 14th-century architectural styles, with templates copied onto tomb panels and baptismal fonts (O’Donovan 2012, 171-94). The N aisle E window is a three-light window, with cusped tracery ‘of strongly Perpendicular character’ and a hood-moulding consisting of a succession of quadrants and hollow chamfers (ibid., 190-1). The pattern for the flat-headed traceried two-light window at the W end of the N aisle, combining reticulation with supermullions of the Perpendicular style, is to found on the tomb panel at the E end of the S aisle (KK026-010062-) (ibid., 184-5). The S aisle E window consists of a round-headed three-light window with intersecting tracery. The W window of the S aisle consists of a round-headed two-light with flowing tracery, which is identical to the E window of a side chapel in Kilcooley Abbey (TS043-034001-). There is a chapel at the E end of the N aisle, with a stone altar against the E gable, a flat-headed piscina in the S wall with a round bowl, rebated around the top probably for a wooden lid. S of the altar, in the E gable, there is a projecting stone pedestal and N of the altar, against the E gable, there is a small raised stone altar. There was also a chapel at the E end of the S aisle, with a pointed piscina in the S wall. There is a 15th-century tomb (KK026-010062-), probably sculpted by the O’Tunney workshop, in place of the altar. There is a 16th/17th wall monument (KK026-010061-) immediately N of the E window of the S aisle, it was partially built over when the arcading of the S aisle was rebuilt in the 1950s. A moulded corbel, presumably to support a statue, projects out of the S side of the gable. The chancel has been heavily modified internally, the walls have been plastered and decorative heavy strap pointing applied, which does not follow actual masonry lines. At the E end of the S wall there is a pointed piscina niche (opening H 1.07m; Wth 0.63m; D 0.34m) with a moulded surround (D 0.1m), containing a sextagonally fluted bowl. The side stones of the piscina are part of the same reused 13th-century graveslab (KK026-010070-). At the E end of the N wal