Moyne Church (in Ruins) — Moynetemple

Situated on a low rise of ground in undulating countryside. Listed in the ecclesiastical taxation of the Diocese of Cashel in 1302 (CDI, vol. 5, 284). A rectangular church (ext. dims. 7.7m N-S; 19.15m E-W; wall T 1.25m at S; 0.8m at N) built with coursed limestone and sandstone rubble with base-batter (H 1.76m) in the W gable. The W and E gables along with only the N and S wall returns of the E gable survive. There are three slit opes in the W gable at various levels with two possible destroyed niches. The E gable has a fine ogee-headed transomed and mullioned window which is surmounted by a bellcote carried on corbels. The S wall has a destroyed window and there is a trefoil-lobed piscina at the E end of this wall. The S wall has been thickened, probably to accommodate a small barrel-vaulted chamber which has been inserted against the inner face of the E gable, possibly as a burial vault. According to the OS Letters there were two bellcotes one on the E gable and a second one, now destroyed, on the W gable (O'Flanagan 1930, vol. 1, 166). The church stands in the centre of a large graveyard (TN036-028001) containing headstones of eighteenth and nineteenth-century date enclosed by a nineteenth-century stone wall. The above description is derived from 'The Archaeological Inventory of County Tipperary. Vol. 1 - North Tipperary' compiled by Jean Farrelly and Caimin O'Brien (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2002). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 22 September 2008