Church (in Ruins) — Commeen (athlone South By.)

The parish church of Dysert, which has some twelfth century features, is listed as Disert in the ecclesiastical taxation of Elphin in 1306 (Cal. doc. Ire., vol. 5, 224) and it is situated in an undulating landscape. Land was granted by Rory O'Conor to the Cistercian abbey of St Mary's in Dublin (DU018-020048-) before 1236 under the name Disert Briole, and St Mary’s continued to own land here into the mid-15th century but they probably never built an abbey (Gwynn and Hadcock 1988, 144). The church is a rectangular structure (ext. dims 22.95m E-W; 7.2m N-S) surviving complete in a reconstructed state with good quoins. There is a reconstructed round-headed doorway towards the W end of the S wall and a round-headed window and rectangular aumbry are at the centre of the S wall. An inserted segmental-arched doorway at the E end of the S wall with a round-headed window over gives access to a later sacristy which has a single light in each wall and a stoup. There is a twin-light ogee-headed window in the E wall of the church, and a reconstructed inserted doorway at the centre of the N wall leads to an external porch, which is reduced to the foundations. The E jamb of a blocked doorway is visible in the N wall to the E of the doorway and an ogee-headed window is at the E end of the N wall. There is a small rectangular window towards the W end of the N wall while an ogee-headed window high in the W wall indicates a gallery. However, the W end of the church was altered to a house (RO047-060003-) with the insertion of a cross-wall, the addition of a garderobe projecting on the N wall and the insertion of a pointed doorway in the W wall. A broken medieval graveslab (RO047-060006-) (L 1.8m; Wth 0.4-0.5m) with no inscription and the 17th century graveslab (RO047-060007-) (L 1.75m; Wth 0.67m; T 0.1m) of William Lea with an inscription in false relief are within the church. Portions of the church were excavated in 1993 (Higgins 1994a; 1994b) in conjunction with the conservation work. The church is within an oval ecclesiastical enclosure (RO047-060004-) (max. dims c. 240m ENE-WSW; c. 150m NNW-SSE) defined by what is probably an earthen bank SW-NNW and a stone wall N-SE, which are visible on aerial photographs (CUCAP: BDO 29, 30) from the 1970s, but this perimeter is now reduced to a stone spread NNW-ENE. The church is also at the centre of an enclosure (diam. c. 60m) defined by a collapsed stone wall visible on the aerial photographs but only the S part, defined by masonry walls, survives as a D-shaped graveyard (RO047-060002-) (dims c. 30m E-W at S to c. 60m E-W at N; c. 35m N-s) with some early 18th century headstones. Some field walls (RO047-060005-) attached to the perimeter of the graveyard enclosure at N and E on the aerial photographs have been removed. The wayside cross (RO047-061----) is c. 170m to the S. See the attached views from the SE and of the E window (001) and from the SSE (002). Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 24 August 2010