Dunbrody Abbey (in ruins) — Dunbrody

Hervey de Montmorency, who had been granted the baronies of Shelburne and Bargy by Dermot Mac Murrough in 1170, made an extensive grant to the Cistercians of Buildwas in Shropshire in 1171-5, which consisted of the parishes of Killesk, Rathroe, and the parish of St. James and Dunbrody. Buildwas failed to take up the grant, which was transferred to St Mary's Abbey in Dublin in 1182. The new abbey, known as the Port of St. Mary, was consecrated in 1201 by Herlwyn, the bishop of Leighlin and a nephew of Hervey, who probably instigated the building work - starting with the chancel and transepts and finishing decades later with the nave. The possessions were confirmed in 1348 by King Edward III, but the monks were often violent and rebellious in the 14th century (Walsh 1976-7, 27-31). Nevertheless, the grant remained largely intact until the Suppression in 1536 (White 1943, 353-7). In 1545 the abbey and its possessions were granted to Sir Osborne Etchinghm who converted parts of it into a dwelling (WX039-030002-), which may have been abandoned when a house (WX039-031001-) was built early in the 17th century c. 300m to the ESE. The estate passed by marriage in 1650 to Sir Arthur Chichester, and it has remained in this family into the late 20th century (Walsh 1976-7, 32-3). Conservation work was begun by Lord Templemore in 1858 and it was continued by the Office of Public works once the abbey was placed in Guardianship in 1895. (Hore 1901-11, vol. 3, 3 194; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 131 2; Harbison 1975, 245-6; Colfer 2002, 184-5; 2004, 42-4, 66-8) The abbey is situated on a low E-W spur above the flood-plain of the estuary of the meandering ENE-WSW Campile River that is c. 120m to the N and W. The church, consisting of a nave and aisles, and a chancel with transepts survives complete, except the S arcade of the nave and its S aisle, which fell in 1852 but it was a mirror of the N side (Grose 1791, vol. 1, Pl. 125). All the dressed stone on the transepts and the chancel, including the quoins, is Dundry, while sandstone is used in most other places, particularly on the W façade of the church. A green stone and Old Red Sandstone is used in less prominent positions on later work, notably the piers of the crossing, and Old Red Sandstone is used alternately with Dundry on the voussoirs of the arch to the N transept. Architecturally, the church is dated to 1210-40 (Leask 1960a, vol. 2, 83-4; Stalley 1987, 96-99, 244). The nave (int. L c. 34.1m; int. Wth c. 10.3m) has five arches supported on rectangular, chamfered, piers with clerestoreys of two trefoil-headed windows in trefoil-headed embrasures placed over the piers in the surviving N wall. The arches have ribs springing from decorates stops that are almost the only decoration in an austere church. The N aisle (int. Wth c. 3.75m) had four pairs of small lancet windows placed opposite the apexes of the nave arches. The large W doorway is blocked but appears to be round-headed with three orders, and is beneath a string course, above which are the remains of three large lancet windows, originally with three quatrefoils above (Brewer 1825, 375). Two lancet windows survive at the W end of the N aisle. The chancel (int. L c. 11.15m; int. Wth c. 10.3m) has two wide steps towards the E end with an altar under the three lancet E windows. Above the lancets are two and then one round-headed window in the apex of the gable. There is a single lancet window in the N and S walls, and the remains of a triple sedilia in the S wall. Two shallow niches at ground level in the N wall were for tombs. One may have held an effigy from a wall-tomb said to have been of Hervey wearing chain-mail beneath ecclesiastical robes (ibid. 375; Hore 1900-11, vol. 3, 19-20; Hunt 1974, vol. 1, 237) that is now lost but was probably spurious (Manning 1997, 116-8). Each transept (int. L c. 12.95m; int. Wth c. 8.23m) has three groin vaulted chapels (int. dims c. 4.95-5.1m E-W; c. 3.75-3.85m N-S) on the E side, each with a lancet window. There was a chamber above the N chapels with a lean-to roof. The church was fortified in a second phase of building in the 15th century when a tower was added to the original crossing which gave access to wall-walks on all the walls. This necessitated strengthening the piers at the junction of the nave and transepts and closing the nave arches closest to the junction. The new pointed arches on the transepts have a higher pitch than the original arches and now old and new work can be seen together. A newel stairs from the earlier building at the NW angle of the N transept leads to a passage in the N wall through the piers of the two lancet windows in the N wall to the chambers over the N side-chapels. The newel stairs is now permanently closed, but it continues to the wall-walk of the W wall of the transept, and beyond it the N wall of the nave. A doorway at the NW angle of the added tower at roof level leads to a mural stairs in its W wall of the tower with access to a gallery over the nave and the chamber over the vault of the crossing-tower. Beyond this point the stairs descended to the wall-walks over the S nave wall and the W wall of the S transept. Doorways from the chamber over the crossing led to galleries over the transepts and the chancel, while windows placed outside the pitch of the roofs admitted light. A mural stairs descending in the E wall to the N and S leads to the wall-walks of the chancel and the E walls of the transepts, but the parapets survive only on the chancel and these are fragmentary. From the entrance to the crossing-tower at the roof level of the NW angle a mural stairs in the N wall leads to the second floor, the floor of which was supported on a rebate on all walls. This chamber has a double-light cusped ogee-headed window on each wall. This level served as a belfry as there are seven guide-holes for ropes through the vault over the crossing, and the holes on the inner face of the walls of the first floor of the tower have been interpreted as increasing resonance (Anon. 1910, 10). The mural stairs continue in the N wall and emerge on the wall-walk (H over the ground c. 25.6m) of the E wall at the NE angle. Look-outs over the other angles are supported on piers and accessed by steps inside the parapets, but neither the steps nor the parapets survive. A night stairs leads from the S transept to dormitories, now destroyed, above the E range, where a sacristy survives at ground level. There are only fragmentary remains of the chapterhouse, whose groin-vaulted roof was supported on two elaborate pillars. The parlour, whose large chimney was later pierced with a doorway, now blocked is at the S end of the E range around the cloister. Just S of this was a large room with groin-vaulting, but only fragments remain. From the head of the nightstairs a passage has been forced through the E wall of the transept leading to the area over the chapels. This space was turned into a two storey and attic house by Etchingham after 1545. What may be called the ground floor has two rectangular windows, one with two lights, on the E wall and a single-light window on the S wall with a fireplace projecting on the outer face of the E wall. Access to the second floor must have been by internal wooden stairs as there is no evidence of a masonry stairs. The second floor has a fireplace and four rectangular windows in the E wall, two damaged and two with two-lights, and there is a two-light window with a square hood moulding in the S wall. There is also a fireplace in the W wall. The attic above has a large three-light window in the S gable. The refectory walls survive almost to full height in the S range, with the remains of a reader's lectern in the S wall. The porter’s lodge is the only structure on the W side of the cloister (dims c. 35m x c. 35m), but none of the cloister arcade survives. The foundations of a lavabo (diam. c. 3.65m) were uncovered near its SW corner (Anon. 1910, 11). Archaeological ex