Church (in Ruins) — Saunderscourt

Located on a slight prominence, with the NW shore of the inner Wexford Harbour c. 700m to the SE. The parish church of Kilpatrick is within a raised D-shaped graveyard (dims c. 40m E-W; c. 40m N-S) defined by masonry walls (ext. H c. 1.5m) with the straight side at N. According to a Visitation by Thomas Ram, the Protestant bishop of Ferns, in 1615 it was impropriate to Glascarrig (WX017-010001-), Richard Hore was the curate, and while the church was in repair the chancel was in ruins (Hore 1900-11, vol. 6, 271). It was used as a private chapel for the house of Saunders Court, c. 300m to the ENE, and was functioning as a Church of Ireland church into the 19th century (Lewis 1837, vol. 2, 198) before the E part was converted into a mausoleum for the Napier Gore family from the 1840s. It ceased to be a place of worship when a new Church of Ireland church was opened in 1869 at Kyle, c. 2.5 km to the NW (Frayne 1974-5, 55). The church is a single cell rectangular building (ext. dims. 13.9m E-W; 6.9m N-S) surviving to the eaves with an external render and internal plaster. A decorated pointed doorway (Wth 0.97m; H 2.2m) of two orders, which is early 13th century in date and thought to have come originally from Ballynaslaney (WX032-019001-) (ibid.) is in the W wall, with a destroyed single bellcote over the gable. There are two blocked rectangular windows of two (W) or three (E) lights in both the N and S walls with granite surrounds, and there is a large inserted mullion and transom window in the E wall. The base (dims 0.34m x 0.34m; H 0.37m) and part of the shaft (H 0.87m) of what might have been a wayside cross with a hexagonal or octagonal cross-section is set up on top of the graveyard wall at NW. The graveyard is depicted on the 1839 ed. of the OS 6-inch map as within a circular wood (diam. c. 140m N-S; c. 120m E-W) that is attached to a more extensive wood to the NW, but there is no evidence that this was an ecclesiastical enclosure, and there is no cropmark evidence of an enclosure. St Patrick's Well (WX037-018----), a circular drystone walled structure with steps, lies c. 85m to the ENE. Aerial photographs (ASIAP, WX 70, 1 5) show the cropmark of a roadway (L c. 200m) approaching the E edge of the graveyard from the S. 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: 14 December, 2012 Amended: 4 Sep. 2013