St Begnets Church

This fine pre-Norman church stands at the N end of Dalkey Island and is a National Monument (No. 33) in state care. It survives to full height with steeply pitched gables. It is built of coursed granite masonry with large boulders used in the lower portion of the building. Entered in the W gable through a square headed doorway which opens onto an oblong space (int dims L 6.9m, Wth 4.36m). The side walls extend beyond the gable wall creating antae. Their height indicates that there may have been a loft or apartment above the church. There is a single bellcote over the W gable which has had a plain cross recently inserted. The interior is lit by a plain square ope in the S wall. The openings at the E end of the S wall are part of 19th-century alterations to the church which, took place when it was re-used as a dwelling for the builders of the martello tower on the island (Wakeman 1891, 701-702). A fireplace in the E wall is a late insertion. Excavations in 1958 showed that the site had been altered in the Anglo-Norman period (Liversage, 1968, 55; Leask 197767-88). Compiled by: Geraldine Stout and Padraig Clancy Revised upload on: 25 June 2018