Rosserk Abbey — Rosserk

Situated on lowlying ground, sheltered at W by a low N−S ridge, on the left bank of the river Moy, 4km S of the mouth of the river at Killala Bay. The Rosserk River, a small tributary of the Moy, is 200m to S. Moyne Abbey (MA022-024001-), a friary of the Franciscan Observant Order, is located at the estuary, 5km to N. Rosserk, a Friary of the Franciscan Third Order Regular (Tertiaries) was built in the early 1440's: The Calendar of Papal Registers records that in 1441/2 a licence was granted by Pope Eugenius IV for the foundation of Third Order houses at Rosserk, Ballymote (SL033-163001-) and Tisaxon (GA071-082003-), ‘to build a monastery or house of the said order, with churches, bells, bell-towers, oratories etc.’ (Twemlow 1912, 155-6). Rosserk is mentioned again in the Calendar of Papal Registers in 1448, when Pope Nicholas V reassigned a canonry of Achonry held by a secular priest, Philip Oculan who had joined Rosserk frairy: Oculan had held on to the Achonry benefice for three years despite having been professed as a friar (Twemlow 1915, 395). There is little mention of Rosserk in the historical record in succeeding years. The Joyce family are said to have been patrons of the community (McDermott 2011, 60; O’Hara 1898, 258). Following the Dissolution of Monasteries, the monks appeared to have stayed on for some time. However, the property was leased to James Garvey in the late 1570’s. The friary appears to have suffered attack in 1590 during the military campaign of Sir Richard Bingham, Governor of Connaught, and in 1595 the tithe of corn and hay belonging to the abbey was granted to Edmond Barrett (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 274; O'Hara 1898, 259). By 1641 the abbey, its buildings already falling into ruin, was in the possession of Richard Boyle, 1st earl of Cork (O'Hara 1898, 259). Rosserk is a National Monument in State ownership (No. 104). It is noteworthy as the most complete and well preserved friary of this order in Ireland. The monastery is compact and symmetrically laid out, comprising a long rectangular nave and chancel church with a central bell-tower, a chapel or ‘transept’ to the S of the nave, and to N of the church, three ranges of domestic buildings, enclosing the E, N and W sides of a cloister. The church is embellished with a finely carved main doorway, windows with intricate tracery, an elaborate piscina with a unique carving of a round tower, and an eclectic suite of decorative stone carvings, all typical of 15th-century Irish Gothic style. The buildings are constructed of roughly coursed and dressed limestone blocks, with dressed quoin stones. Plaster remains in some areas on the church walls. The nave (int. 13.40m E–W; 5.80m N–S) is entered through a doorway in the W gable, with ogee-headed hood-moulding, decorated with crockets and flanked by two pinnacles. There are vine-leaf motifs carved on the door jambs, one on the N jamb and two on the S jamb, each including two stylised flowers on a stem. Above this doorway is the only window in the nave, a double-light with switchline tracery; externally, it has a pointed hood with decoratively carved stops, a square stylised flower on the right and a concave square on the left. A pointed doorway at the E end of the N wall of the nave leads into the cloister. A pointed arch at the E end of the S wall opens into the S chapel or ‘transept’; the arch rests on two semi-octagonal engaged columns, with moulded capitals and bases. The S chapel/transept (int. 11.15m N–S; 6.20m E–W) has two large, arched altar recesses in the E wall, the N one with two pointed lancet windows, and the other with two pointed cinquefoil lights with a quatrefoil above. Each altar recess is furnished with a twin-arched piscina, recessed into the outer corner of its S wall. In the wall face intervening between the two altar recesses, a pointed doorway opens into a small room (int. 1.85m N–S; 1m E–W), built within the thickness of the wall; this room probably functioned as a sacristy for the flanking altars (O’Hara 1898, 259, Leask 1960, 111). The S wall of the chapel/transept has an elegant triple-light pointed window, with curvilinear cusped tracery. Each light has a cinquefoil head and above are four quatrefoils. An angel is carved on the inner frame of the window, holding the point of the arch moulding in his hands. Externally, the apex of the pointed hood-moulding is decorated with a small carving of a head, possibly a hooded friar, and another angel, with wings outstretched, is carved to the right of the window. The tall, slender bell tower, rising between the nave and chancel, is built of regularly coursed and dressed limestone blocks. It is supported by a ribbed vault on broad arches at the W and E. The internal ribs rest on corbels, below each of which is a low-relief carving: vine-leaf motifs to the NE and NW, which appear to grow from the point of the corbels, a lion to the SE and an angel to the SW. Beneath the arches, there are two pointed lancet windows in the N wall of the tower, and in the S wall, a pointed doorway leading into the S chapel. The different storeys of the tower are marked on the external wall face by string courses, and each level is lit by a variety of windows from plain single-lights to single and double ogee-headed lights. Crenellations survive at the top of the S and W walls. On each side below the upper floor there are five gutter/water spouts. The chancel (int. 10.60m E–W; 5.85m N–S) is dominated by the beautiful four-light E window, with its elaborate cusped, reticulated tracery. Each light is cinquefoil-headed, above which is a symmetrically array of eight quatrefoils. Externally, it has a pointed hood-moulding, decorated at the stops with carved stone heads of a man and a woman, each in 15th-century headdress. The plain, stone-built box-shaped high altar survives beneath the window. It is flanked in the S wall by an elaborate double-piscina, within a rib-vaulted recess with two small oculi or circular windows in the back wall. The recess is framed by two pointed arches under square hood-moulding, supported on three octagonal columns. The E engaged column features a unique, and finely executed, carving of a round tower (H c. 0.31m). The spandrels of the W arch are each decorated with an angel carrying Instruments of the Passion: one with a hammer, the other with three nails (McDermott 2011, 65); there is also an animal carved on the capital of the W column, perhaps a lion, symbol of St Mark the Evangelist. To the E of the piscina is an aumbry, a square recess for altar vessels There is a double-light window, with ogee-headed cinquefoils, above the piscina, and further W in the S wall, a double-light with rounded heads. The only window in the N wall of the chancel is a square opening at first floor level that allowed sick and disabled friars to follow services from the E range dormitory. A pointed doorway In the N wall, adjacent to a tomb niche, leads into the sacristy in the E range. The cloister square is accessed from the church through the doorway at the E end of the nave, and doorways also open onto it from the three domestic ranges. The cloister arcade is absent, but a path now outlines the ambulatory around the central grassy garth. Three two-storey domestic ranges enclose the cloister, each a separate gabled building, intersecting at their inner corners. Water/gutter spouts can be seen projecting from the exterior of the walls. The N wall of the W range is supported externally by a large rectangular buttress. The layout of each range is almost identical; each is comprised of three vaulted rooms at ground floor, with a large room at first floor level. Each of the ground floor rooms has a doorway opening onto the cloister, and each is lit by a rectangular window in the centre of its exterior wall. It is not possible now to determine the exact function of each of the vaulted rooms; some were used for the daily meetings and community activities, and others served as store rooms. In the E range at ground level, the S vaulted room is the sacristy (in. 5.10m N–S; 3.20m E–W), connecting directly to the chancel at S and the chapter room at N. Stairs in the thickness of the W wall lead to the upper storey. The chapter room (in. 5.90m E–W and 4.35m N–S) does not connect to the northern-most vaulted room (int. 5.90m N–S; 4.55m E–W). The N room has access to the exterior of the monastery through a doorway in the N wall. The upper floor of the E range served as the main dormitory (c. 12.75m N–S; 6.15m E–W), extending the full length of the range. It is lit by a row of four windows in both the W and E walls, all originally rectangular single lights, and in the N wall by a large double-light with ogee-heads, mullion and transom. A doorway at the N end of the dormitory opens into an E–W passage, which leads to a garderobe at its E end and to the upper floor of the N range its W end. In the N range at ground level, the E vaulted room (3.80m E–W; 4.85m N–S) has a mural stairs in the S wall, leading to the upper floor. The middle room (5.80m N–S; 3.55m E–W) does not connect to the E room, but has an interconnecting doorway with the W room (c. 5.8m N–S; 3m E–W). The W room has a pointed doorway in the W wall opening to the outside, and at the SW angle of the room another doorway opens to a small vestibule interconnecting with the cloister and the N room of the W range. The upper storey of the N range consists of two interconnecting rooms, separated by a two-sided fireplace with a single chimney. The larger room (6.55m E–W; 6.10m N–S) at E was most likely the refectory, and is well lit by windows in the N, E and S walls. In the N wall of the fireplace is a rectangular cupboard. The smaller W room (3.65 E–W; 6.10 N–S) was probably the kitchen, and has one round-headed light in the N wall, a wall cupboard in the W wall, and a round-headed doorway at the S end of the W wall, leading through a short passage to the upper floor of the W range. The W range is almost a mirror image of the E range, but none of the three vaulted ground floor rooms interconnects. The S room has a straight mural stairs in the E wall leading to the upper storey, which probably served as another dormitory, again extending the full length of the range, and featuring a small garderobe at its NW angle. At the S end of the W range, intervening between it and the church, there is an E–W passage, leading from the cloister to the outside world. Compiled by: Anne-Julie Lafaye and Jane O'Shaughnessy Date of upload: 2 July 2020