Abbey — Rosclogher

Close to the S shore of Lough Melvin. Thought to be the site of the early church of Doiremelle, which was founded by Tigernach of Killeagh c. 800 AD as a nunnery for his mother, St. Mella (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 380), but this is the result of confusion with the church at Derryvella, Co. Tipperary (TS048-035001-). This church is probably a medieval chapel that served the local population using the nearby crannog and tower houses. The church is a rectangular structure (int. dims 10.95m E-W; 5.56m N-S) of randomly coursed semi-ashlar sandstone masonry walls (max. Wth 1m; max. H 5m at E) with dressed quoins. It survives almost complete, except the N wall which is largely reduced to a cairn. There is a destroyed doorway (Wth 1.4m; surviving H 1.9m) towards the W end of the S wall and a destroyed light towards its E end. Much of the S wall fell during 2016. The E window is a single light (Wth 0.37m; H c. 2m). The W gable is the E wall of a tower house (LE002-015005-) that stood immediately to the W. There is a record of a decorated face corbel (Davies 1946, 78) which could not be found. A low earthen bank (int. H 0.2m; ext. H 0.9m) 21m to the E, a scarp (H 1.8m) down to the shore on the N and a slight bank to the W form an enclosure (LE002-015003-) (dims c. 45m E-W; c. 20-25m N-S) around the church but there is no evidence of burial. A small square building (LE002-015002-) (int. dims c. 3m x c. 3m) c. 15m SE of the church is represented by a single wall (H 2m) and a pile of rubble. The crannog (LE002-014001-) with the tower house (LE002-014002-) is c. 100m offshore. The S wall of the church fell in the autumn of 2016. See the attached view from c. 1998 before the collapse of the wall _1, and an older view from the SW _2 The above description is derived from 'The Archaeological Inventory of County Leitrim' compiled by Michael J. Moore (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2003). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of revised upload: 16 December 2015 Amended: 31 January 2020