Church (in ruins) — Askinvillar Upper

Located on a gentle E-facing slope at the foothills of the Blackstairs Mountains. This is an early ecclesiastical site, although the saint is not known. The graveyard is marked faintly as a circular enclosure (diam. c. 40m) on the 1839 ed. of the OS 6-inch map with a church building inside it. A fragment of a church wall and the nearby St Doran's Well are recorded by John O'Donovan writing c. 1840 (O'Flanagan 1933, vol. 2, 103) and there was also a possible bullaun stone or font at the well (Ua Dubhghaill 1925, 95) but none of these features survive. Traces of a circular ecclesiastical enclosure (diam. c. 70m) are visible as a band of subsoil on the surface when the field is ploughed. A granite cross (H 0.76m; Wth 0.38m; T 7cm) with an incised cross on one face and a raised boss on the other is within the small graveyard (ext. dims. 12m N-S; 11m E-W) defined by masonry walls that is possibly a family graveyard now. A second granite cross (H 0.7m; Wth 0.35m; max. T 0.14m) with an elaborately incised cross on one side and a tennon at the base is also within the graveyard. Archaeological testing (05E0893) to withn 30m S and SW of the graveyard produced no archaeological material (McLoughlin 2008). The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Wexford' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1996). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload/revision: 22 May, 2012