Knockgraffon Church (in ruins) — Knockgraffon

On a natural rise overlooking the Suir river valley to the W, Knockgraffon motte and bailey (TS075-019001-) is visible to the W. In the Ecclesiastical Taxation (temp. Ed. I) the rectory of Knockgraffon was valued at the high annual rate of 20 marks (Orpen 1909, 276). According to the OS Letters the church was 'remodelled and much disfigured since the Reformation, a part of it having been fitted for Protestant Service' (O'Flanagan 1930, vol.1, 36). A late 18th-century sketch by Beranger shows a roof over the eastern end of the nave (Harbison 1991, 77). The nave (int. dims. 8.2m x 26.47m) and chancel (int. dims. 6.8m x 6.7m) church, aligned E-W, is constructed of limestone and sandstone rubble, randomly coursed with base-batter at E, an external string-course and possible decorative buttresses, one partially surviving at the NE angle. The E gable has evidence of three building phases. Initially there were two lancet windows which were then partially destroyed by the insertion of a large, round-headed 13th-century window with moulded surrounds. The inner order consists of a roll-moulding with fillet, the outer roll-moulding has moulded capitals with water-hold bases. This window rests on a roll-moulded string-course with fillet and there is evidence of tracery on the N and S sides of the window. However, the lights have been removed and the window blocked with the insertion of a 15th-century window. This latter window consists of a cinque-foil cusped-ogee window, two over two, with hollow spandrels and external hood-moulding with drop-labels, within a stone frame which is chamfered externally. At the SE angle, below the lowest coping stone, there is a corbel projecting S with an exhibitionist figure (TS075-019005-), and one course below this there is another corbel projecting E from which a carved figure is emerging (TS075-019006-). In the 15th-century an inner wall was built up against the N and S wall of the chancel to support a stone vault, since collapsed. A round-headed sedilla in the centre of the S wall of the chancel blocks a 13th-century recess, the trefoil head of which is visible where some masonry has collapsed. Under a window at the E end of the S wall there is a piscina with a scalloped basin. Immediately N of the chancel there is a possible sacristy, its E wall being flush with, and keyed into the base of, the E gable of chancel. It probably dates from the 15th-century phase of rebuilding. The N and W walls of this building do not survive and the S wall, which is also the N wall of the chancel, does not survive above 0.9m. According to the OS Letters this building measured L 23'6-inch [7.15m] x Wth 15' [4.57m] (O'Flanagan 1930, vol.1, 37). The pointed chancel arch (L 1.75m; Wth 4.74m) is built of well-cut sandstone voussoirs, with the remains of a stair running up within the thickness of the N wall above the arch. Slots on the W, inner, face of both sides of the arch indicate where a former rood screen was located. The nave was narrowed (wall Wth 0.77m), and probably shortened, in the post-Reformation period, probably in the 17th or early 18th century. It was lit by long pointed windows, the embrasures of two of which survive in the S wall as well as one blocked-up window at the E end of the N wall. There is also a shallow round-arched recess between the two embrasures in the S wall. The original nave was wider, with evidence of the earlier wall (Wth 1.2m) running along the N side and fragments still visible on the S side. The original W gable of the nave, with adjoining side walls, is still standing, showing evidence for three windows in the W gable and an original window at the W end of the S wall. There is no surviving doorway into the nave, with large breaks in masonry in both N and S walls. A graveslab dating to 1500 AD (TS075-019006-) was located within the chancel, opposite an early 18th-century gravestone, dated 1711, which lay in a horizontal position near the W wall of the chancel (O'Flanagan 1930, vol.1, 37). Portion of another graveslab (TS075-019007-) dated 1500 or 1540 AD lies in the interior at the base of the S wall of the chancel. There are two large limestone slabs resting against the E wall of the chancel, these appear to have been united and would have formed a large single slab (L 2.09m; Wth 1.06m; T 0.18m) with a small chamfer (Wth 0.02m) around the edge and a margin defined by a groove on the upper surface. This may be an altar table. Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 24 June 2013