Drumcliff Church and Round Tower

Situated about 2 miles NW of Ennis town near the top of a steep E-facing slope within a large graveyard (CL033-033002-). No historical references are known for this ecclesiastical site but its foundation is sometimes attributed to St Conald (or Connal) (Gleeson and Gwynn 1962, 33-4; Swinfen 1992, 22). Westropp (1894, 335) refers to its taxation (Ecclesia de Drumleb) in 1302-6. The present church dates to the fifteenth century but incorporates features of an earlier church. Westropp (1900-02, 143) assigns a date of the 11th century to the S wall and the windows but a 15th-century date to the E gable. This became the medieval parish church of Drumcliff, incorporating both Ennis town and Clonroad. It is known to have been still in use in 1622 when Bishop John Rider of Killaloe states that the Protestant incumbent was ‘Thomas Prichard, a grave minister and preacher; a man of good life and conversation, inducted in Anno 1617’ (Swinfen 1992, 22).

The conserved remains of a rectangular church (ext. dims. 20.05m E-W; 7.85m N-S; int. dims. 16.3m E-W; 6.3m N-S) with evidence of rebuilding. The walls are of uncoursed limestone rubble. The N wall is featureless and survives to full height except for 3m at the W end which is reduced to foundation level. The E wall has a twin-light mullioned ogee-headed window (H 1.55m) with a square hood-moulding externally. There is an aumbry (Wth 0.73m; H 0.55m; D 0.2m) at the S end of the E wall. A gently pointed doorway (Wth 0.9m; H 2m) in the S wall (5.2m from the W end) has a rounded chamfered rear-arch (Wth 1.25m. H 2.6m) with steps down to the interior and a surviving drawbar- slot. To the W of the door the wall projects inwards for 0.3m. A similar projection on the E side of the door is visible on Westropp’s plan (1894, 334) and so the surround of the doorway sat proud of the internal wall line. There are two windows in the S wall both with wide internal splays. The one further E is flat-headed with an external chamfer and rebate although this window was described by Westropp (ibid., 333) as having ‘a semicircular head and moulding’. A third window with a wide splay was blocked by the insertion of the E wall and so the church extended further E at some time. The dressed stones of the W splay of this window are still visible. The W wall has a simple, round-headed, single-light window set within a cutstone round-headed splayed embrasure placed high in the gable. It is not centrally placed, being to the N of the apex, indicating that the entire church was rebuilt. There are traces of a corbel table at the top of the N and S walls at the E end. The ruined remains of a round tower (CL033-033003-) lie c. 10m to the N. The church and round tower are national monuments in State care, no. 204. (Westropp 1894, 332-40; 1900-02, 143; Gwynn and Gleeson 1962, 32-5; Swinfen 1992, 21-2; Large 2011)