Church (in Ruins) — Saints Island

In the W half of a graveyard (LF026-016003-). St Ciaran may have founded a monastery here before 542; the priory was built for the Augustinian canons c. 1259 (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 193-4). In 1552 Richard Nugent was granted a lease of the 'monastery of canons of the Hooly Iland', which was described as being 'covered with shingles' (Nicholls 1994, vol. 1, 199) and in 1565 the lease was extended (Cal. S. P. Ire., vol. 1, 279). Daniel Grose visited the island in the late 18th century and noted that 'The Priory of all Saints when entire must have covered a great space of ground, and was surrounded by a lofty wall with a square and ample gate, near which, part of the porters lodge still remains, and facing stood a stone cross [LF026-016006-], the stump yet standing in the pedestal' (Stalley 1991, 85). Grose’s paintings of the priory present two views: that from NE depicts a partially robbed-out pointed doorway at the E end of the N wall, the string course and corbels that supported the roof of the ambulatory off that wall, the intact E gable with a large triple-light tracery window and a tall pointed single-light window at first-floor level in the W gable. The W range consists of four barrel-vaulted chambers. A two-storey high building is shown on the extreme right side of this illustration – it may be the remains of the ‘porter’s lodge’. Its diamond-shaped chimney stack suggests it dates to the 17th century (ibid., 83). The SW view illustrates a broken-out doorway in the W gable of the church and the E wall of a transept extending off its S wall. A tracery window in the transept is smaller but similar in style to that in the E gable of the church. The precinct wall, or possibly another building, is visible in the right foreground (ibid., 86). Grose (ibid., 85) noted that a ‘lofty Belfry’ which stood somewhere in the vicinity of the transept had collapsed. The priory consists of a simple undivided church with a transept on its S side. The cloister and conventual ranges were to the N. All of the buildings were contained within a precinct wall. Two phases of construction are evident, the earliest dating to the 13th century with rebuilding dating to the 15th century. The church (ext. dims. 23.2m E-W; 7.85m N-S; wall T 0.85m) is constructed of roughly coursed limestone rubble that has been repointed and rebuilt in places. The E gable survives to its original height. The E end of the S wall and the W end of the N walls are the best preserved sections of these walls. The corbels noted by Grose (ibid., 83) that supported the roof of the ambulatory are visible in the external face of the N wall, off-entre to the W. The W gable has been rebuilt and there is no trace of the doorway or window noted by Grose (ibid., 86). There are four single-light lancet-type limestone windows in the E end of the S wall. Diagonal stone-tooling on the jambstones indicates a 13th-century date. Three of the windows are fully intact while the top half of the fourth, located furthest to the W, is missing. The triple-light window in the E gable with switchline tracery is well preserved and made of limestone. It dates to the 15th century. Within the church a double piscina is visible near the E end of the S wall; there is an aumbry to its W. Another aumbry is visible opposite this in the N wall. To the W of the centre of the interior an uninscribed medieval graveslab (LF026-016005-) is resting on four dumb-bell piers, of 15th-century date, that are from the cloister arcade. In the S wall, off-centre to the W, a destroyed doorway accessed the S transept. Only its E wall (L 4.8m; wall T 0.8m) with a tracery window survives, again of 15th-century date, but the wall-footings of the S and W walls are evident (SMR file 1994). A doorway in the N wall of the church gives access to the destroyed cloister. Architectural fragments from the cloister arcade lie scattered around the graveyard. Traces of the wall-footings of the E range survive among the memorials in the graveyard but there is no visible surface trace of the N range. The W range consists of two of the barrel-vaulted chambers (int. dims. 5.1m E-W; 3.2m N-S and 5m E-W; 2.95m N-S) painted by Grose (Stalley 1991, 83); only the ground floor survives. Partial remains of the precinct wall (H 3-4m; wall T 1.2m) survive at WSW and W. That at WSW is featureless and may be the section of walling or possible building shown on Groses’ view of the priory from the SW (ibid., 86). That at W is incorporated into the graveyard wall and contains a single-storey square-shaped garderobe tower that has been heavily restored (ext. dims. 3m x 2.2m; wall T 1.1m). Three buildings associated with the priory are visible within the graveyard. In the NNW sector, a section of the SE wall (L c. 14m) of a long rectangular building, shown on 1911 OS 25-inch plan, survives. The wall is densely overgrown but a small mural tower appears to be incorporated into it. Wall-footings of a building aligned roughly E-W, slightly to the E of the N end of the E range, may be the remains of the ‘porters lodge’ noted by Grose (ibid. 85). Close to the NE angle of graveyard wall a small rectangular building (LF026-016004-) may be the remains of an ecclesiastical building, possibly a church. No trace of the gateway or cross noted by Grose (ibid.) survives. (SMR file 1976; Moore 2007, No. 16) Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 5 June 2013