Ballylarkin Church

Though known by local tradition as an abbey, this is an undivided parish church (int. dims. 8.06m E-W; 5.83m N-S, wall T 0.88m; wall H c. 6m) constructed of limestone rubble, roughly coursed, though the E gable consists of roughly dressed coursed masonry above the lower courses of rubble. The masonry suggests that the church has three building phases, the side walls and lower E gable belonging to the earliest phase, the upper E gable including the large window being built at a later date and finally the parapets were added. There is a four-storey tower, presumably residential, at the W end of the church, though only the E wall (T c. 1m) of the tower survives. A sheela-na-gig (KK013-018003-), now in the National Museum of Ireland, came from this church.

Though small, this church has many interesting features. The church was entered through a doorway (Wth 0.85m) at the W end of the N wall, the upper portion of which is now broken out. The interior was lit by a large E window, broken out, within a pointed embrasure and by a single-light cusped ogee-headed window, within a pointed embrasure, at the W end of the S wall. According to local information the tracery of the E window was broken out in the 19th century and burned for lime (OPW correspondence, no date). A plaque (KK013-018005-) has been inserted into masonry at the base of the E window. There is a cusped ogee-headed piscina at the E end of the S wall, with an ogee-headed hood-moulding, the basin is scalloped. Between the piscina and the S window there is a large sedilia consisting of three niches, each within a moulded pointed arch, the middle arches rising from two moulded columns with fillet moulding. Pinnacles rise from the four moulded hood-moulding terminals, that at the E end is the best preserved and is particularly ornate, with crockets on the E side, the pinnacle then expanding into a pointed window tracery motif consisting of a quatrefoil above two trefoils. The two western-most pinnacles appear to terminate with a cross, as illustrated by Prim (1849-51, 51-2), though these are not well preserved.

Near the E end of the N wall there are the remains of a round-headed niche, only the voussoirs of which survive, which is likely to have been a tomb niche, possibly for an important benefactor. In the E gable, S of the window there is a flat-headed aumbry, and above this to the E there is a projecting polygonal corbel, partially broken, which probably supported a statue, with another, more poorly preserved, moulded corbel slightly higher W of the E window. An unusual feature can be found in the side walls 1.4m from the E gable and c. 3m above floor level, consisting of a projecting semi-circular carved stone with a hole in the middle, presumably to pull a bell rope through, suggesting there was a housing for two bells in the roof.

The roof was steeply pitched, the stone coping of which is visible projecting from the inner face of the W wall of the church, and the E gable, with some coping stones, survives, the roof rising from a projecting moulded limestone kneeler on either side. One of the coping stones of the roof on the N side of the W gable is a reused stone with fluted decoration. Another portion of this stone (KK013-018006-) is incorporated in a gate pier, now collapsed, on the opposite side of the road. The dressed quoins are well preserved. The parapets on the side walls appear to be a later addition, the wall-walk being supported internally by an off-set carried on a corbel table, each corbel of which is decorated with tracery motifs in relief.

The architectural features suggest that that the earliest phase of the church dates to the 14th century, with modifications, including the E gable and parapet, being carried out in the 15th century. The tower house, which also forms the W gable of the church, appears to have had a vault over the first floor and had at least two floors above the vault, carried on a wooden floor, as evidenced by a single surviving projecting corbel. Only a portion of the second and third-floor levels of the E wall of the tower survive.

(National Monument no. 282)