Donaghmore Church

In rolling pastureland on a wide, flat plain. The church is roughly centrally located in a graveyard (KK010-005002-). According to Carrigan (1905, vol. 2, 82), the ‘church and parish of Donoughmore “in Odoch,” belonged to the Abbey of St. Thomas, Dublin, almost from the foundation of the latter in 1177’, and he cites several references c. 1200 to c. 1240 where this church is mentioned. After the Reformation the church continued to be used for Protestant worship into the 18th century (ibid.). Carrigan (ibid. 83), quotes how in 1731 Edward Tennison, the C of I Bishop of Ossory, ‘found “the roof of the church and chancel standing, but the slating so decay’d that both want to be new slated.” The “new slating” was not afterwards effected; and service finally ceased here before 1747’. When visited by the Ordnance Survey (OS Letters 1839, 64-7), it was noted that the, ‘whole of the interior surface of the wall retains portions of a strong plaister of lime and sand, and the place would appear not to be one hundred years deserted’ (O’Flanagan ed. 1930, vol. 1, 22-3).

A medieval church (ext. dims. 17m E-W; 6.3m N-S; wall H c. 3m; centre and E gable H c. 4.5m), consisting of nave (int. dims. 9.5m E-W; int. 5.7m N-S) and chancel, built of random rubble, aligned E-W. The W gable was surmounted by a double bellcote, with triangular-headed openings, but no longer survives. There were opposing doorways near the W end of the nave, though that in the N wall is blocked. The S round-headed doorway (H 1.66m; Wth 1.11m) is composed of local red stone and has punch-dressed tooling within margins. The N doorway (H 1.7m; Wth 0.8m), 3.7m from the external NW gable, is blocked up. There are traces of an earlier doorway (H 1.12m above ext.; Wth 1m), now blocked, in the W gable. It has crude, split flat lintel (L 1.8m; H 0.15m) which projects (D 0.08m) slightly from the face of the gable. There is an rectangular stoup (0.31m x 0.24m; D 0.17m) with chamfered edges with runout stops, built into the S wall, 0.24m E of the doorway, it contains a circular bowl (diam. 0.2m; D 0.08m). There is an aumbry (H 0.35m; Wth 0.35m; D 0.4m) in the S wall, (0.7m from the chancel arch).

The round-headed chancel arch (H 2.94m; Wth 2m; T 0.85-0.93m) with cut-stone voussoirs, is located centrally in the dividing wall (T 0.98m), though both sides of the opening splay slightly to the N. The chancel (int. dims. 6.5m E-W; int. 4.6m N-S) is lit by opposing windows 1m from E wall, a round-headed window in the S wall and a largely reconstructed window in the N wall. The E gable has a two-light rounded-headed window within a framed chamfered surround externally, with plain recessed spandrels. There is a piscina niche at the E end of the S wall. A survey in 1942 mentions that the W gable was then partly supported by wooden stays and that burials in the nave continued until 1933 (OPW topographical files). Carrigan (ibid., 83) mentions a chest-tomb (KK010-005003-) in the SE angle of the chancel dating to the late 16th century. Also within the chancel is a fragment of a medieval graveslab (KK010-005006-). Carrigan (ibid., 84) also notes two late 17th-century graveslabs (KK010-005004-; KK010-005005-) in the SW angle of the graveyard.