Church (in ruins) — Ballybrennan Big

Located on a level, low-lying landscape with a small S-N stream c. 10m to the E, and the original SW corner of South Wexford harbour is c. 300m to the N. The parish church of Ballybrennan is within a subrectangular graveyard (dims c. 40m N-S; c. 20-30m E-W) defined by earthen banks with trees, except at the S where there is a masonry wall, and a lane (L c. 110m) leads S to the N25 Wexford town to Rosslare road. The church is an undivided rectangular structure with good quoins (ext. dims 9.7m plus E-W; 6.3m N-S), of which the W wall and most of the N wall are removed. A pointed doorway (Wth 0.9m; H 1.67m) with an arch of undresses stone is set in an elliptical embrasure (Wth 1.17m; H 1.8m) towards the W end of the S wall. There are opposing windows towards the E end of the N and S walls, that on the S is pointed (Wth 0.15m; H 0.63m) with a glazing groove, while the N window is rectangular (Wth 0.16m; H 0.57m). There is a pointed E window (Wth 0.18m; H 0.92m) with a glazing groove. Each window has a hanging-eye for an internal shutter, and all the embrasures are elliptical-headed. The doorway also has a hanging-eye. There is a plain aumbry at the E end of the S wall and there is a broken shelf on the N side of the E window. All the features are of dressed granite with some green stone. There is a rectangular granite font (ext. dims 0.68m x 0.6m; H 0.35m plus; int. dims 0.45m; x 0.38m; D 0.23m) within the graveyard. The site of St Keevil's Well, where patterns were held on 27th August (O'Flanagan 1933, vol. 1. 281) lies c. 175m to the SE, and Ballybrennan Castle (WX048-001001-) is c. 200m to the NE. (Hore 1921, 76-7) 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. Date of upload/revision: 2 January 2014