St Molaises Chapel — Inishmurray

Located in an ecclesiastical enclosure (SL011-011001-), known as ‘The Cashel’. This tiny church, known as Teach Molaise or St. Molaise's Chapel, is traditionally identified as the tomb chapel or shrine chapel of St Molaise, the island’s patron saint, and housed the secondary relics of the saint until modern times. It is set close to the Cashel wall in the north-west part of the interior. Here, the building stands parallel to the enclosure wall, on an orientation of 64°30’ that is considerably at variance with the standard liturgical east/west alignment and, indeed, considerably at variance with the more orthodox alignment of Templemolaise (SL001-001009-). The building is 2.7 m long by (max.) 2.8 m wide, within walls about 0.5 m thick. Thus it is slightly wider than it is long, with proportions of about 1:1. It is also trapezoidal in plan, widening slightly towards the east end. The walls are of mortared rubble, roughly coursed. There is a west doorway, slightly off centre, with a simple Greek cross inscribed on the lintel. The east wall is pierced by a small round-headed window and by several putlog holes (partly blocked) on the interior and exterior. The roof is of mortared stone, now grass clad. It is asymetrical and of very low pitch. The building is generally sound and bears only light vegetation on the roof. It is closed by a padlocked, metal, barred gate set in the doorway. The atypical dimensions, the low, irregular roof, and visible changes in the masonry (described below) are most certainly due to very extensive rebuilding – especially of the side walls and roof. The overall effect was to widen the building by about 0.6 m and it can be deduced that the overall external dimensions of the primary building were about 3.8 m long by.2.7 m wide, giving proportions of about 1.4:1. Internally, most of the floor area is taken up by features abutting the side walls and east gable. A layer of loosely laid large flags lies along the foot of the north wall, internally. The east end is internally spanned from wall to wall by an altar (SL001-001007-), formed by a high, narrow stone bench. A broader, lower stone bench extends along the south wall and this is known as Leaba Molaise (St Molaise’s bed) (SL001-001006-). Externally, there is also a low stone bench with a surface of loose flags spanning the entire length of the south wall and this appears to have been keyed to the masonry of that wall. The west doorway is trabeate in form (i.e. with a flat lintel). It is about 1.4 m high and the jambs batter from a width of 0.54 m at the base to 0.51 m at the top. The jambs are of large, moderately well-squared, but not well-fitted, sandstone blocks. Most of these span the thickness of wall. The lowest jamb stone on the south side projects 0.1 m from the internal wall face. Directly below this is a pivot stone for an upright door-post, with a hole 0.05m wide by 0.01m deep on its upper surface. The north side of the projecting jamb stone is shaped to accommodate the post. Midway along its external face the lintel (H: 0.19 m, W: 1.03 m) is inscribed with a simple Greek cross (c. 0.15 m across) with slightly expanded terminals, and there is also a vertical groove, 0.06 m long, midway along its interior face. Much of the exterior of the round-headed east window has been reset. The ope currently measures 0.4 m high by 0.25 m wide. Its monolithic, inward-splaying lintel is neatly rebated at the exterior, and behind this a deep hole – 0.03 m wide by 0.08 m deep – pierces both the north and south sides of its soffit. Of the exterior jamb stones only one at the north is definitely original. Along the reveal of this stone, and directly below the hole in the soffit of the lintel, is a vertical groove, 0.01 m deep. These features probably accommodated a pivoting shutter that could only have opened to the exterior. A small niche in the exterior of the north and south jamb bases may have accommodated a piece of wood, pierced with a hole, on which this shutter could pivot. Alternatively, these niches may be late features. The soffit of the lintel features another groove behind the two holes, which may have accommodated an inner wooden frame covered with thin, stretched hide or some other translucent material. The exterior shutter would have protected this from weathering. Despite the fact that it may be rebuilt, the embrasure is of well-cut, well-fitted stone, descending in three steps internally. It measures 1.17 m high by 0.52 –0.38 m wide. Its base is considerably lower internally than the base of the opening. The substantial rebuilding of this church is attested by its odd dimensions, irregular roof and also by changes in its fabric. The side walls were certainly rebuilt and also the upper parts of the end walls, probably at the same time that the stone roof was added. Where it survives in situ – in parts of the end walls – the original masonry is roughly coursed, squared rubble of mainly medium to large blocks, quite well fitted. There are relatively few spalls and only moderate visible mortar. In contrast, the rebuilt side walls are of random rubble of less regular, poorer fitting blocks, with more spalls and more visible mortar. In both gables there are irregular vertical joints where the secondary masonry abuts the primary work. No scars or tusking stones of the original side walls are apparent on the end walls internally, and it may be that parts of the internal faces of the end walls were also rebuilt. Changes in masonry style also indicate that the exterior east wall was rebuilt, from about height of the window ledge, and even less of the exterior west wall appears to be original. It is possible that some of the original coins – medium to large, well-squared blocks – survive in situ in the east gable, especially at the north-east angle. The unusually short proportions of the church support the possibility that these are the original quoins, now merely the tell-tales in the rebuilt end walls of a somewhat narrower original building. If so then, unlike most shrine chapels, this building had no antae in its primary phase. Two putlog holes occur at a high level, internally, in each of the end walls, but are almost certainly late. Three occur in the exterior east wall. The lowest of these is set in the surviving remnant of primary masonry and thus is itself an early feature. The structure of the irregular stone roof is partly obscured by vegetation at the exterior and mortar at the interior, but it is clearly a late medieval or post-medieval feature. It was raised on formwork built with long narrow laths and the impressions of these survive in the mortar that thickly covers the internal surface. Some of the upper stones in the rebuilt end walls are probably coping stones from the original gables. None of these is in situ but their form suggests that the original roof was very steeply pitched. It may have been wooden with a thatch or shingle cladding. A charcoal-bearing mortar sample from the E wall of the building yielded a calibrated radiocarbon date of AD 724–836 at one sigma probability (Berger 1992, 884) and AD 690–980 at two sigma (Berger 1995, 172). As the east wall was substantially rebuilt, probably in the later medieval period, the dated mortar may not have been in a primary context when sampled. The above description is derived from the results of a survey of the archaeological monuments on Inishmurray undertaken in 1997-1999 and published in: Jerry O’Sullivan and Tomás Ó Carragáin 2008 Inishmurrary. Monks and pilgrims in an Atlantic landscape. Volume 1: Archaeological Survey and Excavations 1997-2000. Cork. The Collins Press. Date of upload: 16 January 2018