Tawnagh Church (in Ruins) — Tawnagh (tirerrill By.)

On a low rise, on the N side of a road; in the SW quadrant of Tawnagh graveyard (SL034-085002-). The ruin of a rectangular gable-ended church (int. 16.58m E-W; 6.1m N-S), with a porch (3.35m E-W; 3.95m N-S) added to the W end, built of uncoursed limestone in lime mortar. The walls stand to full height except for the central portion of the N wall that has fallen. This space is occupied by a mound of loose stones, which includes fragments of roofing stones (two of these are in NMI along with a quernstone and a portion of another from the site (pers. comm. M. A. Timoney)). A N-S line of low stones, noted on the E side of the breach in the 1980s, may have been the remains of the E wall of a N transept (pers. comm. M. A. Timoney). The church is entered through a central doorway in the W wall. The chamfered door-surround is late medieval in style with a pointed arch and a hood-moulding. Directly overhead is another doorway, much ruined, which must have served a gallery. Just inside the doorway, on the S side, is an octagonal stone basin set in a square recess (H 0.3m; Wth 0.35m; D 0.35m) covered by a rounded arch. The interior has four surviving window opes: two in the S wall, one in the centre of the E gable and another directly overhead in the angle of the gable. These held wooden-framed lights, none of which survive. Part of a quernstone is set into one of the windows in the S wall. Two rows of joist-holes at the W end indicate the position of a gallery. There is a bellcote, for a single bell, at the top of the W gable. The porch walls are butted against the W wall of the church, off-centre to the N; its S wall partially covers the jamb of the doorway. The porch has a doorway in its W wall and a window ope in its N wall. Loose but in its original position in the W wall is a roughly rectangular stone inscribed: 'THIS CHURCH WAS BUILT AN/DOM 1733 JON DODD AND WILLIAM COOPER BEING CHURCHWARDENS'. Below the inscription are three sunken panels - one with a monarch's head, one with a fleur-de-lis, and the third blank. Two quoins in the NW corner of the church are punch dressed in late medieval fashion. There are other reused stones in the fabric of both the church and porch, including what may be part of a window jamb on the NE corner of the church. This is the ruin of the late medieval parish church of Tawnagh, rebuilt as a C of I parish church, probably by the 1620s (Hurley 1943, vol. 1, 386), with the porch and gallery added in 1733 (see above). The church seems to have been out of use by 1837 (Lewis 1837, vol. 2, 599). A Tau cross (SL034-085005-) stands just inside the E wall of the graveyard, 10.8m E of the church. St. Patrick's Well (SL034-028----) is c. 250m to the N. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Sligo' compiled by Ursula Egan, Elizabeth Byrne, Mary Sleeman with Sheila Ronan and Connie Murphy (Dublin Stationery Office, 2005). Date of upload: 18 January 2008