Ballyadams Church (in Ruins) — Ballyadams

At the S side of Ballyadams hill are the remains of a nave and chancel church that was dismantled circa 1826. Capt. Wm. Bowen of Castle Carra, Co. Mayo, bequeathed in 1594 twenty nobles towards the building and repairing of the church. Originally known as Kilmackeady, the church of MacAedh (O'Hanlon and O'Leary 1907, vol. 1, 182). A medieval limestone-built church (L c. 19.6m, wall T c. 0.9m) with a nave (Wth c. 5.3m) and chancel (Wth c. 5.6m). Entrance in S wall, probably not original. Opes in N and S walls and in W gable. Within church is an altar-tomb (LA019-031003-), erected in 1631 to Robert Bowen and his wife Alice Harpole by their son. Its S face depicts an arcade of four rounded arches containing four figures, two female, two male, in seventeenth-century costume with an incised inscription above them. The effigies of Robert Bowen and his wife were originally on the covering slab of the tomb but these are now destroyed (JKAS 1912, 21-2). Above the altar-tomb is a mural tablet and above this an armorial panel. A late medieval limestone slab (L c. 2m, Wth c. 0.8m) with the effigy of Walter Harpole, Dean of Leighlin 1587-1597, carved in low relief, lies in SE corner of chancel. Numerous uninscribed grave-markers visible in the surrounding subrectangular graveyard (LA019-031002-). Site revisited by Caimin O'Brien on the 01 May 2007 - present remains consist of a long rectangular nave (int. dims. 10.4m E-W; 5.6m N-S) and chancel (int. dims. 7.1m E-W; 5.6m N-S) church (ext. dims. 20m E-W; 7.2m N-S; wall T 0.8m) covered in ivy which obscures examination of the building. Small aumbry or niche located in S wall near the SE angle of the chancel with single light window located off centre to the E in the S wall providing light for the chancel. Immediately below this window and niche is the late sixteenth century effigial graveslab of Walter Harpole, Dean of Leighlin. Directly opposite this graveslab in the N wall of the chancel there is a seventeenth century sarcophagus and wall memoiral dedicated to Robert Bowen and his wife Alice Harpole, dated 1631 (O'Flanagan 1933, vol. 2, 2). Described in 1838 in the OS Letters as an old church measuring 'about sixty six feet long and eighteetn broad. It consists of a nave and choir. The choir is twenty two feet in length. In this choir there is a monument to Robert Bowen and Allis Harpole, 1631, over which stood the figure of a mail clad warrior, now broken to pieces' (O'Flanagan 1933, vol. 2, 2). According to O'Hanlon this church was previously known as Kilmackeady which may have meant the 'Church of MacAedh' (O'Hanlon and O'Leary 1907, vol. 1, 182). According to O'Hanlon 'The country traditions, regarding the cruelties practised by this family, against the native Irish, have caused this tomb to be pulled asunder, within the last century, and now its former characteristics are scarcely distinguishable. On the entablature were the Bowen's arms quartered with those of the Hartpole, and the crest is composed of those representing Bowen and Harpole; that is a helmet for the former, and a hart or stag for the latter. On the sarcophagus lay the effigies of Robert Bowen Esq., and Alice Harpole. Mr. Bowen was dressed in buff armour and morion, and Mrs. Bowen in the close dress of the times. In the front of the sarcophagus, under four distinct niches, were the figures of their four children, that is, Joan Bowen the 2nd, Margaret Bowen, Thomas Bowen the 4th, and Oliver Bowen the 3rd. At the foot end were Sir John Bowen the eldest son, Thela Ellis Bowen, wife to Sir John. At the head were Alles Bowen and six more, with Margaret Bowen the third. The names of all these were carved on the arches over their heads (O'Hanlon and O'Leary 1907, vol. 1, 182-3). The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Laois' (Dublin Stationery Office, 1995) compiled by P. David Sweetman, Olive Alcock and Bernie Moran. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 17 December 2007