Church (in Ruins) — Cloonmorris

Located on a rise which is on a gentle W-facing slope. This is the site of an early monastery which may have been known as Eadarchlauin (Edercloon). Saint Bréanainn of Edercloon is only known from two lists, but his feast was on 13th December, a date shared with Colum of Terryglass (TN006-003001-) with whom he might have been compounded (Ó Riain 2011, 117-8). The church is a late twelfth century structure that probably served as a Chapel-of-Ease in the parish of Mohill during the high Middle Ages. The church is a rectangular structure (ext. dims 13.9m plus E-W; 7.96-8m N-S) surviving complete (H 4-4.2m), except for the W wall which is missing. There are single-light windows in the E (pointed) and S (round-headed) walls. The only doorway (Wth 1.03m; H 2.35m) is in the N wall. The bottom part of the doorway has internal and external chamfers but no rebate and is original, but above the abaci or capitals the pointed head is an insertion of the fifteenth century. The soffit of the arch has a channel (Wth 0.15m; D 0.2m) in the thickness of the wall that might have held a wooden tympanum (Scully 2019, 139-40). A bullaun stone (LE037-004004-) which has been greatly damaged (dims 0.45m x 0.35m; H 0.2-0.35m) but has basins on its upper and lower surfaces is within the church, which is within a triangular graveyard (dims c. 75m NE-SW; c. 60m NE-SW). The graveyard is defined by a masonry wall adjacent to the NNE-SSW roadside at W but by a stone-faced scarp and hedge on the S side. The graveyard was extended to the NE before 1995 (OSAP) when the boundary on this side was removed. There is an ogham stone (LE037-004003-) at the N apex of the old graveyard. This Silurian grit stone (L 1m) with a square cross-section (dims 0.26m x 0.16m to 0.30m x 0.19m) has an ogham inscription on two angles, one of which is badly damaged. The inscription has been read as: G (A)T (T)...QENUVEN... by MacNeill (1909) and by Macalister (1945, vol. 1, 3-4), and originally could have read 'GATTAGNI MAQI MUCOI QENUVENDI'. (Harbison 1970, 142) See the attached view of the church taken from the W _1 and the doorway _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 upload: 23 September 2008 Amended; 7 January 2020