Church in ruins — Ballyhoge

Situated on the S side of a small fold towards the bottom of the steep E-facing slope of the Slaney valley with the N-S river c. 200m to the E. Ballyhoge has been identified as Ballishauc, a church of the Knights Hospitallers of St. John (Colfer 2002, 202-5), rather than Ballyhack (WX044-009----) on the river Barrow, and Commendators of Ballycoak occur down to the Suppression (Hore 1900-11, vol. 3, 245-8), after which the church became parochial. According to a Visitation by Thomas Ram, the Protestant bishop of Ferns, in 1615 the church of Ballykeoge was impropriate and there was no priest, but the condition of the church building is not recorded (idem. vol. 6, 271). The church of Ballyhoge is within a D-shaped graveyard (dims. c. 40m E-W; c. 35m N-S) with straight N and W sides defined by masonry walls. The W wall (L 7.75m; T 0.9m; H 2m) of the church with no features survives. Other walls are grass covered foundations of a recatngular structure (dims 20.5m E-W; 8m N-S). The site of St John's Well where the pattern was held on 24th June until c. 1800 according to John O’Donovan writing c. 1840 (O'Flanagan 1933, vol. 2, 44) lies c. 30m to the N, but this location is now occupied by a quarry. 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: 11 June, 2013 Amended: 4 Sep. 2013