Grallagh Church

Medieval ruins of Grallagh church (ext. dims. c. 15.5m E-W x 7m N-S) of possible nave and chancle form, dedicated to St. Mac Cullin or Maccallin, stands on the highest part of Grallagh graveyard (DU007-001004-) with holy well (DU007-001002-) 20m to S. Church ruins dedicated to St Maccallin which was described by D'Alton (1838, 493) as follows; 'the ruins of a church, which had been dedicated to St. Maccallin an Irishman of the tenth century, who took upon him the habit of a Benedictine monk at Gorzea [Gorze Abbey, Moselle, France] in the diocese of Metz, and became Abbot of Walciodorus, now Vassor [Waulsort Abbey, Belgium], near the Meuse. He subsequently retired to the church of St. Michael on the frontiers of Hainault, in the diocese of Laon, where he died in the year 978 on the 21st of January'. The curvilinear form of the enclosing bank and ditch of Grallagh graveyard (DU007-001004-) may indicate the presence of an ecclesiastical enclosure belonging to a monastery founded here in the 10th-century by St Macallin. According to D'alton (1838, 494); 'The chapelry of Grallagh was from a very early period dependant on Hollywood [DU004-023001-], and with it appropriated to the [Augustinian] canons of Lanthony near Gloucester, while the manor was from an almost equally remote time the property of the Cruise family. In 1393 Teigue O'Byrne granted six messuages and sixty acres of land of great measure, with their appurtenances, in the townland of Mullahow in this parish, to its then rector and his successors to pray for the soul of the said O'Byrne. An inquisition of 1612 finds the Abbey of Duleek [ME027-038011-] seised of the chapel of Grallagh, containing Grallagh, Curragh, and Mullaghow, which, together with the tithes of Grallagh, were, with the other possessions of Duleek [ME027-038011-], appropriated to Viscount Moore, and letters patent including them were passed to him in 1618 and 1640'.

In 1615, the Royal Visitation of Dublin recorded that in the Deanery of Garristown, there was the vicarage of Hollywood [DU004-023001-] with the chapel of Grallagh that was served by the curate Terence Ivers and the vicar, Edward Corbet, the church was valued at 20 marks (Ronan 1941, 23). According to Ronan (ibid.); 'The chapel of Grallagh (Greallach, a miry place), dedicated to St. Mac Cullin, was likewise granted to Llanthony'. In 1630, Archbishop Bulkeley’s Visitation of Dublin, recorded that in Hollywood, Grallagh and Naul [DU004-045004-]; 'The churches and chauncells are ruinous. The tythes are impropriat, worth .... per annum, held by the Right Honourable the Lord Vicecomte Moore. There are not above eight persons that frequent divine service in that parish. Mr. John Hyde, Mr. of Arte and preacher, is vicar of Hollywood and curate of the rest, beinge worth sixteene pownds per annum' (Ronan 1941, 69). The 1654-56 Civil Survey of Dublin recorded on the the lands of Grallagh belonging to Christopher Cruise of The Naul there stood 'The walles of a Chappell' (Simington 1945, 36). According to D'Alton (1838, 494); 'In the war of 1641 the above mentioned Christopher Cruise, having forfeited all his possessions here, they were thereupon granted to Charles Viscount Fitz Harding who died seised thereof in 1672'.

Chapel ruins described in 1887 as; 'Grallagh (i.e. a miry place), dedicated to St. MacCullin. This small parish, containing only 400 acres, is appropriately named. It is marshy, low-lying land. The ruins of the chapel are fast disappearing. The outlines of the nave, 38 feet [11.6m] by 24 [7.3m], and chancel, 12 feet [3.65m] by 20 [6m], can be easily traced. The W. gable alone remains standing. It has a small window, and is quite covered with ivy. The church must have been small and without any claim to architectural beauty. It lies due E. and W. It has been a ruin since before A.D. 1630. It was probably not built until after A.D. 1306, as there is no mention of it in the returns of A.D. 1275 and A.D. 1302. To the S. is a well [DU007-001002-], covered in by a carefully-restored stone-roofed building' (Walsh 1888, 245).

Only a section of the W gable remains upstanding of the medieval parish church of Grallagh, elsewhere the outline of the levelled walls of the church are visible as a rectangular-shaped sunken area (dims. 15.2m E-W x 6.9m N-S) defined by a grass or earthen-covered wall footings which in places are covered with collapsed rubble giving the appearance of an earth and stone bank. A section of the ivy-covered W gable (dims. L. 7m; int. H 2.5m; ext. H 1.9m; wall T 1.1m) survives upstanding. Built of roughly coursed masonry. According to Walsh there was a small window in the W gable (1888, 245). Immediately to the S of this possible window a memorial plaque was inserted into the internal face of the gable wall which is now covered in ivy. Photographs of the W gable taken by H. A. Wheeler in 1975 (SMR File) shows the wall plaque located off centre to S in the internal face of the W gable. In this photograph there is no trace of the window described by Walsh in 1887. The S face of a wall running N-S across the E end of the church may represent the line of the chancel wall, this wall along with the E end of the church is covered with rubble from the collapsed walls of the church. The external line of the levelled E gable wall of the chapel is now encased within concrete which forms the surround of a grave-plot marked by a ringed-high cross of early 20th-century date built on top of the E gable wall of the church. A single headstone of 20th-century date with grave-surround is visible in the centre of the church with other memorials on or adjacent to the N and S side walls.