St. Marys Church

Situated on a S-facing slope within a graveyard (CL029-009009-) some 43m S of St. Brigid’s church (CL029-009006-) on Inis Cealtra in Lough Derg. St. Mary’s is the largest (ext. dims. 18.57 by 8.72m) and most southerly church on the island, originally constructed in the late 12th/early 13th century but used as a medieval parish church and much reconstructed subsequently. It has a W doorway (Wth 1.07m; H 2m) with a slightly pointed arch and a simple external moulding of early 13th-century date. Two other later doorways, one in the S wall (Wth 1.42m; H 2.32m) 5.3m from the W gable and one in the N wall (Wth 1.12m; H 1.84m), are now blocked up. The N doorway is only visible externally. The church was not well lit. There were only two windows, a tall single lancet in the E end (Wth 0.23m, remaining H 1.2m with a deeply splayed embrasure) and another single round-headed lancet on the S wall to light the altar. This was also deeply splayed (int. H 2.5m; Wth 1.5m). There is an unusual offset in the S wall starting just W of the window and extending along the length of the church but not reaching the top of the wall. The wall may have been thickened at some stage by adding a new face to the inside. There are two aumbries, one in the S wall near the E corner and one in the N wall near the E end. The head of an ogee-headed window is mounted inside the upper portion of the blocked-up doorway on the S wall and the lower part of a window is placed on the ground beneath. It is not clear where these belonged originally. There is a buttress against the N wall externally with a water channel or slop-stone pierced through. An elaborately carved altar at the E end formed part of an O’Brien wall monument (CL029-009123-) the upper portion of which is mounted on the S wall. Four cross-slabs (CL029-009071-, CL029-009100-, CL029-009108-, CL029-009202-) are mounted on the walls in the interior. Iniscealtra is a national monument in state care, no. 5. (Macalister 1916, 130-31; de Paor 2013, 28) Compiled by: Mary Tunney Date of upload: 13 October 2015

St. Mary’s Church on Inishcaltra (Holy Island) was built in the 13th century, dedicated to St. Mary, and is the largest and most southerly of the churches on the island. It is significant as part of a cluster of early Christian and medieval religious sites associated with monastic activity in Lough Derg.