‘St. Andrew’s Chapel’ — Ballindurrow

The medieval nave and chancel parish church dedicated to St Andrew in the village of Multyfarnham is depicted as a ruinous building on the 1659 Down Survey map of the parish of Multyfarnham (NLI, MS 723-4). In the papal Taxation of 1302-06 the church of Multyfarnham located in the deanery of Mullingar is valued at 100s. yearly (Cal. Doc. Ire., 259). In 1411 the rectory of the parish church of St. Andrew of Multyfarnham was described as being of lay patronage which is ‘vacant at present by the death of Robert Oconyngean’ and which was then conferred to Bernard Macmurkerchaid [Mac Murtagh], a clerk of the diocese of Ardagh’ (Costello 1909, 84). In 1449 the death was recorded of ‘Geoffry de Lemara [Delamere], rector of the parish church of Multyfarnham’ (ibid., 98). In 1492 there is a reference to ‘Thebaldus de la Mayr’ [Theobald Delamere] who is described as the rector of the parish church of St. Andrew the Apostle of Multyfarnham (ibid., 170). Depicted as ‘St Andrew’s Chapel’ and shown as a long rectangular building on 1837 ed. OS 6-inch map. Only the W gable of the church is depicted on the 1912 ed. OS 25-inch map. The long rectangular church ruins stands on a low rise of ground with unlocated medieval castle site (WM006-060----) to N, possible motte (WM007-072----) 110m to NE with River Gaine 160m to NE. Franciscan friary (WM006-058----) 500m to N. Present remains consist of a short upstanding section of the N end of the W gable of a medieval nave and chancel church standing in the centre of a sub-triangular shaped graveyard (WM006-061001-). The remaining walls of the church ruins are indicated by recently exposed low wall footings. Inside the church ruins are some post-medieval headstones. Scattered throughout the graveyard are several architectural fragments belonging to the medieval church that have been inserted into the graveyard.These include the punch dressed arch stone of the original church doorway, two window sills and one chamfered punch dressed window jambstone. It is not clear if these fragments have been inserted into the graveyard to act as gravemarkers in the post medieval period or whether they have been inserted into the graveyard in recent times as part of graveyard clean up scheme. St. Andrew’s Church ruins were described in 1976 as following: ‘Apart from some standing wall remains in the NW corner and some further rubble collapse at the E end of the N wall. Very little survives. The basic rectangular plan (quiet large) of a medieval parish church (ext. dims. L approx. 20m E-W; 6.3m N-S; Wall T 1.05m) can be made out, the footings are now grass covered and mounded up. There is a door ope 6m W of the E end of the N wall showing reveal stone and another less obvious gap opposite in its S wall. The standing wall remains at the NW corner have been cemented or dashed over and look very unsightly. No features visible. The masonry underneath appears to be very small poor quality. There is no clear trace of an internal division. Headstones and tombstones within and without chapel – modern. The graveyard wall is high at W side of site but probably modern. Here at a distance of 9m out from this wall there is a low bank curving round to the S. It appears to be a double banked feature in places with a width of 4m between and so could be the remains of an earlier roadway’ (SMR File 15/07/1976). Today there are no surface remains of this possible medieval roadway as a modern cemetery extension is now located on the W side of the medieval graveyard. In 1980 the church ruins were described as following: ‘only a small portion of the west gable smothered in ivy and shored up with concrete approx by grass covered wall footings. The building was aligned approx. E-W and measures approx. 9.5m N-S by approx. 26m E-W. The east end is rather disturbed. There are indications that the church was divided into a nave and chancel. The chancel being approx. 8m long by 8.5m wide N-S. Precise measurements are impossible because of long grass and collapsed stones. The ruin is within a roughly triangular graveyard bounded by a stone wall. There are several 19th and 20th century tombstones in the graveyard (SMR file 08/10/1980). Compiled by: Caimin O’Brien Date of upload: 22 November 2015