Islands Church

N of the modern town of Urlingford and N of the River Goul, with a tower house (KK012-001006-) and bawn (KK012-001007-) across the river to the S. It is centrally positioned within a roughly rectangular graveyard, with a road running E-W along the S edge of the graveyard. There are earthworks (KK012-001001-) surrounding the graveyard. According to Carrigan (1905, vol. 2, 365), the church was dedicated to, ‘The Blessed Virgin, under the title of her Assumption (Aug. 15th)’.

A nave and chancel church built of limestone rubble, roughly coursed, with small crude quoins. The nave appears to pre-date the chancel, it is constructed of larger stone blocks and the chancel is not keyed into it. According to the OS Letters 1839 (O’Flanagan ed. 1930, vol. 1, (104)) the W gable was formerly surmounted by a bellcote. The nave has been heavily restored and the chancel, which had been used as a mausoleum in the 19th century, has been much modified with the W end of its S wall removed.

There are opposing doors in the N and S walls of the nave, towards the W end, both doorways have been rebuilt. The low N doorway had been mostly destroyed, including the lintel, with rebated jambs and a cut socket in one of the W jambs. It is described in the OS Letters (ibid.) as being ‘pointed-arched’ and ‘closed up’. The segmental-headed S doorway appears considerably wider, but the opening has been rebuilt. Carrigan (1905, vol. 2, 363) noted that a decorated stone from this doorway was being used to mark a grave in the graveyard. The nave was lit by at least three windows, a single-light, now broken out, at the W end of the N wall, a round-headed single-light in the W gable and a ‘broken window’ between the S doorway and chancel arch, though this does not survive.

At the E end of the nave there is a chancel arch (Wth 0.95m), probably dating from the 15th century, with original wicker-centring surviving on the soffit. This arch was subsequently extended westward, and a deep arched recess added on either side, both opening to the W. A low wall closes off the western end of this vault in which there appears to have been a doorway, now blocked.

The interior of the chancel was much modified in the 19th and 20th centuries when it was subdivided into burial plots. A modern doorway, with a re-used medieval fragment as a lintel, was inserted in the S wall to give access to a 19th-century family vault (1854). The N wall has three arched recesses, the most westerly of which houses a statue of Our Lady. The E window, of which only the voussoirs and S jambs of the embrasure are visible, has been blocked up and a large memorial slab (1854) set against the internal face. O’Donovan (O’Flanagan 1930, vol. 1, 106) described and sketched the E gable as having two pointed windows. There is a reconstructed flat-headed window in the S wall, with a splayed window embrasure. There was some evidence of a niche, possibly a piscina, immediately E of this doorway, but reconstruction and repointing has obscured this feature. The S wall had been supported internally by a large buttress roughly mid-way along the wall. The wall W of this is now missing.