Church (in Ruins) — Ardagh (tirawley By.)

Located in the SW quadrant of a graveyard (MA039-015002-). A ruined medieval church (6.1m N-S; 13.3m E-W) on a WNW-ESE alignment, constructed of medium-sized random mortared limestone rubble. When inspected in 1996, the W gable (H 3.1m; Wth 1.2m) survived relatively intact, the N and S walls (Wth 0.8m) stood to a height of 1.3m, but only low remnants of the E gable (max. H 0.4m) survived. The basal courses of the walls incorporated a number of large blocks, with one particularly large, upright slab at the SW corner of the W gable. There was a break (Wth c. 2m) towards the W end of the S wall which probably marked the location of a doorway. In 2008/09 unauthorized works took place at the church during an graveyard clean-up scheme. The walls were heavily pointed with cement mortar. The top of the W gable was rebuilt and the top of the N and S walls squared off and cemented over. The low remnants of the E gable were used as a foundation for a reconstruction of that wall to a height of c. 2m, incorporating three pointed arched alcoves, which bare no relation to the original form of the wall. As a consequence, details of the original fabric of the wall are now largely concealed, and the church is no longer recognisable as a medieval structure. Within the church, three contiguous grave plots, roughly outlined by settings of low stones, abut the inner face of the S wall, and a grave covered by two horizontal stone slabs and marked by an headstone with an 18th-century inscription, abuts the N wall towards its E end. Compiled by: Jane O'Shaughnessy Date of upload: 13 March 2018