Tintern Church

Situated on a W-facing slope and on the S side of the old road from Clonmines to Fethard. This is a Capella-ante-portas (lay chapel) of Tintern Abbey within a rectangular graveyard (dims c. 36m ENE-WSW; c. 30m NNW-SSE ) defined by masonry walls. It was probably rebuilt in the later 16th century by Sir Anthony Colclough with stones from the Abbey, which is c. 300m to the NW. According to a Visitation by Thomas Ram, the Protestant bishop of Ferns, in 1615 the church of Limregh or Tintern was newly built by Thomas Colclough, and Richard Allen was the priest (Hore 1900-11, vol. 6, 269).Robert Leigh writing in 1684 described it as the parish church of Tintern (ibid. vol. 2, 147), and it would have remained in use until the present Church of Ireland church, which is c. 800m to the SSE, was built in 1818 (Lewis 1837, vol. 2, 627).

The church survives almost complete with good quoins. It is an undivided structure (ext. dims 14.05m E-W; 7.7m N-S; int. dims 12.3m E-W; 6.1m N-S), with a double bellcote added separately as an extension (dims 2.68m N-S; 1.18m E-W; H c. 6m) to the N side of the W gable. The only entrance is a round headed doorway (Wth 0.99m; H 1.99m) in dressed sandstone with a hood moulding towards the W end of the N wall. The triple lancet E window (Wth 1.59m; H 2m) of Old Red Sandstone, sandstone and shale, is now blocked. The two-light W window (Wth 1.59m) is pointed and partly blocked, while a window towards the E end of the S wall is destroyed. All the windows could be re-built with stones from the abbey, as might a blocked doorway (WX045-029008-) built into a wall on the S side of the road c. 30m W of the graveyard. A double set of joist holes in the N and S walls at the W end of the church may have supported a gallery that was replaced once. The late 16th century memorial of Sir Anthony Colclough (FitzGerald 1904-06) is attached to the inside of the S wall and there are four late 17th century memorial slabs within the church (Cantwell 1974-84, vol. 8, No. 383). There is a vault, now blocked, entered from a doorway on the outside of the W gable. Lady's Well (WX045-028001-) is c. 90m to the W.

This is a National Monument in state ownership: No. 614