Mohil Church ruin

On the SE slopes of the Dinin river valley, in rolling grassland. There are good views across the valley.

According to Carrigan (1905, vol. 3, 459), the church, 'was dedicated to St. Nicholas of Tolentine (Sept. 10). It continued to be used for Protestant service, from the time of the Reformation to about 1732, when it was almost entirely thrown down and rebuilt. Dr. Tennison, Protestant Bishop of Ossory, in his Visitation Book of the year 1732, notes that the church of Mothel "was lately begun to be rebuilt." Protestant service ceased here about 1800, when a new Protestant parish church of Mothell was erected at Coolcullen'.

The church (max. dims. 14m E-W; 7m N-S; wall T 0.62m) and E end of a tower built of roughly coursed limestone rubble with occasional larger sandstone blocks. The Mothel handball club's handball alley is built onto the W end of the church, incorporating the E wall of the adjoining tower. The earlier handball alley, which was constructed with shuttered concrete, has been heightened with concrete blocks and the building has a corrugated iron roof. The W gable of the church projects eastward from the E wall of the W tower. The gable has been levelled off below the apex, at the same level as the wall of the tower. The N wall of the church is on the same line as the N wall of the W tower, visible at the NE angle of the tower continuing behind the external concrete shuttering. The S wall of the tower projects southward from the church and appears to be replaced by concrete shuttering running from the SE angle of the tower. The quoins of the tower are small crudely cut blocks of limestone. A blocked round-headed doorway (Wth 1.66m; H 2.6m), supported by thin voussoirs set on edge, the cut-stone surrounds are missing, connected the church and tower.

The church is poorly preserved, the E gable is missing and the eastern end of both the N and S walls, which otherwise survive (H c. 3m). There is evidence of two windows in the N wall of the church, only the W splay of the window embrasure of the easternmost window survives (L 3.95m from NE angle). The lower portion of the embrasure of the other N wall window survives (L 9.1m from NE angle; ext. Wth 0.73m; int. Wth 1.1m), as does the embrasure of a window in the S wall (L 6.86m from SE angle; ext. Wth 0.72m; int. Wth 1.15m) though the top of this latter embrasure is also missing.

Described in the OS Letters (1839), the 'walls of this old Church remain to their full height, but there is a large breach in the middle of the east gable which has carried away the window except its flat pointed top and a bit of its north side, which are built of thin square chipped stones. There is a window in the middle of the south side extending from the top of the wall to within two and a half feet [c. 0.75m] of the ground (the wall is nine feet [c. 2.7m] high and two feet [c. 0.6m] thick) and three feet eight inches [1.12m] wide on the inside and two feet six inches [0.76m] wide on the outside. There are two windows of the same size and four in the north wall all broken at top. There is a pointed doorway in the west gable, seven feet four inches [2.23m] high, of which the arch measures one foot seven inches [0.48m], and five feet two inches [1.57m] wide. It is well built of small thin square chipped stones, but the arch is very rude. This doorway is closed up from the outside for the purpose of a Ball Alley. There is a belfry with one sharp pointed hole on this gable. There is a well frequented burying ground near it. I have no historical reference to this old Church, which measures forty seven and a half feet [c. 14.5m] in length, and nineteen and a half [c. 6m] in breadth, built all of small thin square stones but none of them cut' (O'Flanagan 1930, vol. 1, 36-7 (12-13)).