Donaghmore Church

On the SW edge of the summit of a hill, sloping quite steeply to S, level to N, and with gradual slope to E and W, in undulating terrain. The church was dedicated to St. Farannan who exiled himself to the Continent and died at Valcoidon, renamed Waser on the Meuse, in 982 (Burke 1896, 24; Harbison 1970, 226). It became a National Monument in 1883 when the Commissioners of Public Works took charge of the ruin and 'under the judicious care of Sir Thomas Deane, such repairs were effected as are likely to preserve it for ages to come' (Burke 1896, 25). There are earthworks in the adjoining field to N. A nave (int. dims. 7.2m x 12m; wall T 1m) and chancel (int. dims. 2.6m x 2.5m; wall T 1.11m) church, constructed of limestone masonry rubble, randomly coursed, with some quite large boulders incorporated in the masonry. The architectural details and quoins are of sandstone. The walls and steep gables survive to a good height. The church is entered through a centrally placed doorway in the W gable. Three orders survive and are decorated with roll-mouldings, chevrons with beaded and moulded ornament and vegetal ornament, described by Leask (1977, 137) and Harbison (1976, 56-7). Above the doorway are the remains of a projecting tangental tympanum, most of the decorative elements of which are broken out. The OS Letters (1840s) refer to a tympanum or 'a stone inserted in the wall over this doorway exhibiting the figure of a cat with two tails sculptured upon it, the work of the celebrated Irish Saint and Artifex, the Gobaun Saer. This stone is said to have been stolen by Cashel Car-men, who carried it to Holycross' (O'Flanagan 1930, vol. 1, 53). The nave is lit by a central round-headed single light in the N wall and two round-headed single lights in the S wall, with a later flat-headed single-light window inserted at the E end of the N wall. In the nave, immediately S of the doorway, a square stoup (dims. 0.2m x 0.2m; H 0.2m) with circular bowl (diam. 0.16m) has been inserted into the wall. Remains of internal render are visible on all internal walls. The chancel arch, comprised of three orders, has largely collapsed, with plain engaged columns surviving with their capitals and bases decorated with vegetal ornamentation. Coping stones project internally inside the steep angle of the E gable on both N and S sides, indicating a shallower incline than the present gable. The barrel-vaulted chancel is lit by a round-headed single-light window in the centre of the W wall. At the E end of the N wall there is a rectangular aumbry. A flat-headed doorway has been inserted at the W end of the N wall, the threshold of which is raised 0.6m above the interior. There is a lintelled recess in the S wall of the chancel (L c. 0.74m; H 0.32m; D 0.68m; 1.1m above int.). An inaccessible chamber above the chancel was formally entered from the nave, possibly via a wooden stairs in the NE angle which led to the doorway above the chancel arch. This chamber was lit by a round-headed single light in the E gable. Externally on the N and S walls of the nave are a series of water spouts with drain-holes at the base of the parapet. The parapet, built at a later phase, rises c. 0.8m above the water spouts. At the E end of the S wall of the nave, a section of parapet, defined by quoins, projects out from the wall face. A medieval graveslab (TS077-027005-) lies in the interior of the nave and another (TS077-027006-) has been placed upright in the graveyard.