Church (in Ruins) — Longfordpass North

Situated on a SE-facing slope of rising ground with a nearby artillery fort (TN042-060) to the SW. This site has been identified as Daire Mór founded by St Colman in the seventh century (Manning 1997). Only the lower courses (int. H 1m) survive of a small early medieval rectangular church (ext. dims. 7.25m N-S; 11.45m E-W; wall T 0.8m) constructed with coursed cyclopean masonry with the chamfered jambstones of a W doorway (Wth 0.82m). Antae are visible at the W end only and are chamfered in a similar fashion to the W doorway. Chamfered stones were reused as quoinstones in the construction of the nearby barracks. A punch-dressed limestone chamfered window-jamb of late medieval date was also reused in the eighteenth-century barracks located to the S of church. Several orthostats protruding from the surface of the ground to the S of the church may be just natural rock outcrop. A tenth-century date for the construction of the church has been suggested and the chamfered antae compared with those on the cathedral at Glendalough (Manning 1997, 359). 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