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Aghanagh

Location
(54°2′19″N, 8°20′11″W)
Aghanagh
G 78 10
pre-1974 traditional (Republic of Ireland) Sligo
now Sligo
  • Hazel Gardiner

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Feature Sets
Description

A single cell church, very overgrown. The E wall is missing. There is a round-headed doorway in the N wall. A 13thc. window in the E end of the S wall has a continuous roll but is otherwise plain. The interior is filled with graves, and a barrel-vaulted mausoleum has been built beneath the S window.

History

The Tripartite Life of St Patrick records that the Church was founded by St Patrick for Bishop Maneus (Maine) and Gentene, and Gwynn and Hadcock list Aghanagh in an appendix of early sites. Petrie, quoting the Tripartite Life of St Patrick notes that the foundation is also recorded in the 'annotations of Tirechan' in the Book of Armagh.

Features

Exterior Features

Doorways

Comments/Opinions

Petrie records, incorrectly, that there is a continuous roll on each order of the doorway. He gives the dimensions as follows: outer h. 2.36 m x w. 1.47 m, inner h. 2.13 m x w. 1.02 m. Petrie has an illustration of the doorway (1845, 180). NW of the site is Maine's Well (Tobar Mhaine).

Bibliography

W. Stokes (ed.), Tripartite Life of St Patrick. London 1887, 144.

M. Killanin and M. Duignan, The Shell Guide to Ireland. London 1962, 2nd ed. 1967, 81.

A. Gwynn and R.N. Hadcock, Medieval Religious Houses in Ireland. London 1970, 372.

G. Petrie, The Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland, anterior to the Anglo-Norman invasion, comprising an Essay on the origin and uses of the Round Towers of Ireland. Dublin 1845, 179-80.