St. Slavators Church

Situated on a shelf of an E-facing overlooking Glaslough Lake, which is c. 70m to the E. The medieval parish church of Donagh (MO007-007001-) was derelict by 1622 (Leslie 1929, 170-2) but by 1670 the parish centre for Protestant worship had been moved to Glaslough, c. 2km to the ENE where the church of St Salvator (Saviour) was built. This was rebuilt in 1763, and the four bay nave with bluntly pointed windows which survives today is from this building. A chancel in a gothic style was added in 1874 over the Leslie vault (Shirley 1879, 296). The church is within a subrectangular graveyard (dims c. 40m WNW-ESE; c. 40m NNE-SSW) that was enclosed with a wall in 1742. All the headstones have been recorded (McMahon and Cowan 1978), including that of John Connell dated 1671 outside the W wall of the church tower. A datestone with 1670 carved in false relief is placed high on the S wall of the nave accompanied by the statement ‘And Rebu / ilt in 1763’ on a separate stone produced in the same style. Only the tower (ext. dims 6.25m N-S; c. 6.25m E-W) built with small stones in contrast to the quarried stone of the nave dates from the seventeenth century. The tower, supported by buttresses, is at the W end of the church and has five stages, but the topmost is probably not original. The pointed doorway at the ground floor on the S is also probably not original. There is a large round-headed window, now filled with three-light wooden tracery on the W wall of the first floor, and there are three simple lights at the second floor. The third stage with a large round-headed opening on each wall is the original belfry stage. The graveslabs of Rev. John Leslie, Bishop of Clogher, dated 1693, and of Mathew Ancktill dated 1688, are preserved in the church tower (Shirley 1879, 143, 297; King 1895; Mahony 1907). Outside the doorway of the church is a small cylindrical octagonal font (dims 0.45m x 0.45m; H 0.43m) with a circular, flat-bottomed basin (int. diam. 0.3m; D 0.24m) that has a drain-hole in a side-wall. Externally, It bears the legend in raised lettering: I know that my Redeemer liveth. Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of revised upload: 9 November 2016

St. Slavators Church in Glaslough was built in the 17th century, likely replacing an earlier medieval church, and is dedicated to Saint Slavator. Its location overlooking Glaslough Lake suggests a continuation of a sacred landscape with religious significance dating back to the medieval period.