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Cloghane

Location
(52°14′24″N, 10°10′55″W)
Cloghane
Q 51 12
pre-1974 traditional (Republic of Ireland) Kerry
now Kerry
medieval not confirmed
  • Tessa Garton

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Feature Sets
Description

Ruined church of 13thc. or later medieval date with an early 19thc. tower. Only the E gable and N and S walls of the chancel remain. There is a round-headed E window, and traces of a window in the S wall. There is a doorway in the N wall. There is a rectangular piscina at the E end of the S wall with a roll-moulded surround. A Romanesque carved head is set into what was the interior S wall of the church. Internal width of church 5.85 m. The church is constructed from rubble masonry.

History

Church of ‘Clothan’ is included in Papal Taxation list of 1302-1307 for the diocese of Ardfert. It was still in repair at the Royal Visitation of 1615, but in ruins by the mid-18thc. (Cuppage, 366). The head was stolen in 1993 and subsequently replaced with a replica.

Features

Exterior Features

Other

Comments/Opinions

The head is regarded locally as an effigy of Crom Dubh, a pre-Christian god. Rynne (1972) discusses the pagan associations and dates the head to the pre-Christian era. Harbison (1973) points out that the attachment of the head to a stone set in the wall suggests that it was designed for use in a stone building, and is thus unlikely to be pagan. The style of the head seems 12thc., and is similar in general type to those at Tomfinlough, Clare, although it is less finely carved than the best preserved head at Tomfinlough.

Bibliography

Cuppage, J., (ed.), ‘Cloghane’, Archaeological Survey of the Dingle Peninsula, Ballyferriter, 1986, 366-7, no.986, pl.48, fig.214.

P. Harbison, , ‘Some Medieval Sculpture in Kerry’, JKAHS, 6, 1973, 9-25.

Rynne, E., ‘Celtic Stone Idols in Ireland’, in C.Thomas (ed.), The Iron Age in the Irish Sea Province, CBA Research Report 9, 1972 , 90.

Sheehy, M., The Dingle Way and the Saints' Road, 1989, 24.