Grange Abbey — Grange (ballintober South By.)

The townland name – Grange – suggests that it was once an out-farm for a religious institution and some of the land at least had belonged to the Cistercian abbey of Boyle (RO006-068005-)in the seventeenth century (Simington 1949, 58), but it may have been church land before that. It is situated at the outer edge of a shelf with rock outcrop on a N-facing slope. The church is a rectangular structure (int. dims 14.3m ENE-WSW; 6.1m WNW-SSE) whose walls (T 0.8m) barely survive (H c. 1m), apart from the featureless S wall (H 4m). It is situated at the W angle of a subrectangular graveyard (RO028-217004-) (dims c. 40m NW-SE; c. 31m NE-SW) defined by masonry walls (H 1-1.4m) but with a curved edge N-E which is on the perimeter of a subcircular grass-covered ecclesiastical enclosure (RO028-217001-) (int. dims 76m E-W; 70m N-S). This is defined by an earthen bank (Wth 5m; H 0.1-0.2m) ENE-E, a scarp down to the interior (H 0.5m) SE-S and a grass-covered stone spread (Wth 3m; H 0.3-0.5m) with some outer facing stones S-NW. The perimeter is damaged by quarries E-SE and NW-N. Field system (RO028-217005-) is attached to the SW. Archaeological testing (04E0304) c. 150m to the S (Read 2007e) and also (04E1019) c. 200m to the SW (Carey 2007) failed to produce any related material. Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 24 August 2010