Pottlerath Church

On a gentle E-facing slope, with streams to the N and W. Local tradition associates the church, 'Teampull-na-Rath', with an enclosure or graveyard (KK022-002001-) which is no longer visible at ground level. The OS Letters (1839) describe the church as standing, ‘in the middle of a kitchen garden, having several fruit trees growing against it’ (O’Flanagan 1930, vol. 1, 244-5 (81-2)). According to Carrigan (1905, vol. 3, 435) the church was likely to have been founded in the mid-15th-century by Edmund Mac Richard Butler who is also built the nearby castle (KK022-003----) c. 90m to the S. However, stylistically this church dates from the 16th century.

An undivided rectangular church (ext. dims. 13.35m E-W x 8.26m N-S; S wall T 0.9; W gable wall T 0.93) constructed of roughly coursed limestone and shale rubble with large roughly dressed quoins, most of which have been robbed from the NE, SW and NW angles. There are traces of plaster rendering on all the internal walls. According to the OS Letters (1839) there was a double belfry surmounting the W gable (O’Flanagan 1930, vol. 1, 244-5, 81-2)). There are two doorways into the church, one centrally placed in the W gable (Wth 1.38m) and one towards the W end of the S wall (Wth 1.16m), both largely broken out. Of the W doorway, only the threshold and basal jamb on the S side survive, the later with an external chamfer terminated by a broach stop. The segmental head of the inner embrasure of the doorway survives, as does wicker-centring on the soffit of the arch and a draw-bar hole (H above threshold 0.9m; D 2m) on the, much broken out, N side. The doorway in the S wall is at a slightly lower level and was narrower, with a draw-bar hole (H above ext. ground level 0.65m; D 1.6m) on the E side and one chamfered jamb of the E side, currently at ground level but the doorway appears to continue below this. Carrigan (ibid.) describes, ‘a round-headed cut-stone door about the middle of the south wall; it is 6 ft. [c. 1.8m] high and is ornamented overhead with, if we remember correctly, Tudor flowering. There is a gothic [pointed] door in the west gable; also a gothic [pointed] cut-stone window of two-lights’. The window above the W doorway is in fact a two-light round-headed window.

The church appears to have been lit by six windows, a traceried window in the E gable, largely broken out, two opposing single-light windows in the side walls, those in the N wall are completely broken out, and a two-light window in the W gable above the doorway. Only the upper portion of the E window survives, the inner pointed embrasure has a cut-stone chamfered surround with punch-tooling. The soffit slopes down towards the exterior where only the apex of the externally projecting moulded surround survives. It is described by Carrigan (ibid.) as, ‘a beautiful tracery window, divided below by two stone mullions’.

At the E end of the S wall the round-headed single-light window (H 1.14m; Wth 0.25m) within a finely cut round-headed embrasure, the window has an external chamfer, rebate and internal chamfer, with a glazing-bar slot and holes, the stones are dressed with punch-tooling within plain margins. The round-headed single-light window (H 1.13m; Wth 0.155m) at the W end is similar in form but is narrower and has a flat-headed internal embrasure. The window in the W gable is within a finely carved round-headed embrasure and externally the two-light window is chamfered externally with plain hollow spandrels, rebated within a flat-headed chamfered surround. The mullion is missing.

At the E end of the S wall there is a roughly square recess (dims. Wth 0.47m; H 0.37m; D 0.33m), which is the location for a piscina, though there is no indication of a bowl. The lower stone possibly projected internally as the rough internal surface suggests that it may have been broken.

Within the interior there four corbels, two on the S wall, one above the piscina recess (H above int. ground level 2.3m) and another E of the S doorway, and two on the N wall, both mid-way along the wall, one is roughly cut and the other is finely carved with chamfered edges with broach stops and punch-dressing.

A small limestone plaque (dims. 0.47m x 0.32m), set within a frame, is inserted into the external face of the S wall towards the E end, it bears the inscription R. W. 1855.