Church in ruins — Kilmoremoy

Located on a slightly raised terrace on an E-facing ridge slope, within Kilmoremoy graveyard (MA030-051002-), and 50m E of League Cemetery (MA030-051004-). According to tradition, Kilmoremoy can trace its origins to St. Patrick. The 7th-century Tripartite Life of St Patrick records that bishop Olcan, a disciple of St. Patrick came to reside at Kilmoremoy or Cell-mor-Uachtar-Muaide (Gwynne and Hadcock 1970, 394). The current church is much later in date; the earliest part of the building may date to the 10th- or early 11th-century in date; this is suggested by the flat-headed doorway in the W gable and the use of large squared blocks in the wall construction. It was extended and modified later in the medieval period, when the doorway in the S wall was most likely added. It was listed as a parish church in the 1306 Ecclesiastical Taxation and valued at 3 marks (McHale 1902, 12). The remains consist of a ruined, rectangular medieval church (c. 14m E-W; 6m N-S) which retains its S, W and N walls; the E gable has collapsed. The walls (T 0.9-1m; H 1.6-1.8m) are construction of large, roughly squared limestone blocks; the NW and SW corners feature large squared quoin stones. The masonry of the E half of the N wall and sections of the S wall differs in style, incorporating smaller limestone rubble, indicating that the church underwent various phases of modification, and was extended to the E in the later medieval period. The W gable retains one of the earliest architectural features: A blocked-up, lintelled doorway (H c. 1.2m; Wth 0.75m) can be seen in the centre of the wall, which appears to be an early trabeate doorway. The exterior of the doorway is now concealed by an 18th-century mausoleum (5.6m N-S; 4.5m E-W; H 3.6m), with crenelated mortared stone walls and a vaulted interior, which is built against the exterior face of the W gable. Roughly in the centre of the S wall of the church are the remains of a later doorway (W 1.62m), with a drawbar socket still visible in the W jamb. The upper portion of the doorway has collapsed, but was still intact in 1838 when it was described as follows in the OS Letters: ‘The doorway which is placed in the south side wall, and the parts of the wall which are immediately on either side of it and over it, are at once recognisable as the work of later ages. The door being in the rude pointed style and the masonry around it being of inferior character.’(O’Flanagan 1927, 30-41) A broken-out gap at W end of the N wall may mark the position of a window. There are two 19th-century table tombs in the interior of the church, and the ground surface is strewn with rubble. Two kerbed grave plots, each containing a 19th-century box tomb, are appended to the exterior of the N wall towards its E end. Ivy now engulfs the walls of the church, obscuring architectural detail and the masonry fabric, and trees and overgrowth grow within and around the church. A circular enclosure (MA030-051005-), a bullaun stone (MA030-051006-) and a cross-inscribed stone (MA030-05107-) are located 150 to W, and a holy well (MA030-052003-) is 180m to SE. Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy Date of upload: 2 February 2021