Church (in Ruins) — Estersnow

St Nuadha of Armagh and Lough Uamha (of the cave) was a bishop and hermit who became the abbot of Armagh but returned to his own monastery of Dhisirt Nuadhain to die in 812 as a reformer of the céile Dé (Ó Riain 2011, 517). Estersnow became a parish church which is listed as Disertmyda in the ecclesiastical taxation of Elphin in 1302-06 (Cal. doc. Ire. vol. 5, 224), and referred to as Ath Dhisirt Nuadhain in 1330 (AFM vol. 3, 547). It was impropriate to Holy Trinity abbey (RO006-038001-) in the sixteenth century (Clyne 2010, 78, 91). The church is described as a ruin in the 1650s with only the walls standing (Simington 1949, 145). Thereafter it became a Church of Ireland parish church which was described as ‘very plain’ (Lewis 1837, 1, 394) but it was abandoned by 1911 (OS 6-inch map). The church is situated in a low-lying landscape with rock outcrop. The ruined rectangular 18th-century structure (int. dims 15.93m E-W; 6.72m N-S) survivies complete (H c. 5m) with masonry walls (Wth 0.8m) which have two large round-headed windows in the N wall, one in the S, a larger round-headed window in the E gable and a doorway and bell-cote in the W gable. There is no evidence of an older structure within the rectangular graveyard (RO010-040002-) (dims 55m N-S; 51m E-W) defined by masonry walls, which is within a large ecclesiastical enclosure (RO010-040003-) (diam. c. 200m) defined by a scarp (H up to 1.5m) NE-S-SW. Tobernoone well (RO010-040005-) was venerated in the 1830s according to John O'Donovan (O'Flanagan 1931 vol. 1, 113-4), but it does not survive. Souterrain (RO010-040004-) is just SE of the graveyard, and souterrain (RO010-040006-) is on the N bank of an E-W stream which runs through the S part of the enclosure. The field system (RO010-041----) is to the NE. Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 19th October, 2010