Church (in ruins) — Faughart Upper

The following description is derived from both the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Louth' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1986) and the 'Archaeological Survey of County Louth' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1991). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 17 July 2007 Divided nave and chancel, built with a mixture of large granite boulders and thin slabs of greywacke. The chancel is featureless, having no evidence of an E window, piscina or sedelia. The remains of the cross-wall between the nave and chancel appears to have a jamb at its S terminal indicating a doorway. The S wall of the nave has been altered and straight joints at its E end indicate infilling. About 4.2m W of the cross-wall there is a window jamb high up in the S wall. Almost directly under the jamb the wall has been broken out and refaced at the W side, indicating that there was a relatively modern doorway here. It cannot be original since it lies directly under the remains of an early window. The jambs of the window are not dressed and consist of granite boulders similar to those in the body of the wall. The doorway, in the W gable, has an opening 2.9m wide and is obviously too big to be the original entrance, which was probably only c. 0.09m wide; this is indicated by two rough granite blocks in the present entrance. The W end of the N wall of the nave is bonded to the N end of the cross-wall, and therefore they are contemporary. The N chancel wall, on the other hand, is only butted against the cross-wall and is therefore later than the nave (see also CLAJ 1966). There is an ivy-covered window with embrasure high up in the N wall, constructed of rough granite boulders. The position of the doorway and the type of wall construction with large rough granite boulders are reminiscent of the twelfth-century buildings at Glendalough, Co. Wicklow, and some other Irish monastic settlements (Sweetman 1984, 36-7).