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Clone

Location
(52°34′27″N, 6°30′39″W)
Clone
T 01 48
pre-1974 traditional (Republic of Ireland) Wexford
now Wexford
medieval not confirmed
  • Tessa Garton

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Feature Sets
Description

A small rectangular church (16.95 m x 8.3 m), ruined and overgrown with ivy. The W gable remains to its full height, but the upper part has been rebuilt in a reddish stone, different from the grey-green shelly limestone(?) used in the lower courses and for the doorway and head corbels. The N and E walls, and the E end of the S wall, stand to c.1.5 m, while the W end of the S wall is higher, but much rebuilt.

History

Little is known of the early history of the site.

Features

Exterior Features

Doorways

Exterior Decoration

Miscellaneous
Comments/Opinions

The wide inner order of the doorway flanked by a narrow three-quarter angle shaft and a pilaster on the face of the wall is similar to the design of the W doorway at Aghowle. Moore suggests that the doorway was originally round-headed, but the height of the second order and flanking pilaster, rising to 2.07 m, appears too high to support an arched opening. The doorway may have had a framed flat-headed opening similar to Aghowle. Du Noyer records five human heads placed around an arch of rough masonry. The heads appear to have been moved since then. A Romanesque window reused in St Peter's, Ferns, has chevron decoration similar to that on the jambs of the W doorway. According to Hore (1904), the window comes from Clone. A head from the N side of the doorway was recorded by O'Donovan as having been moved to St Mogue's Well, Ferns (O'Donovan, 1848).

Bibliography

G. H. Kinahan, 'Antiquities in Co. Wexford', Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 1883, 37-8.

P. Hore, History of the Town and County of Wexford, Dublin, 1911, VI, 584-588.

J. F. M. Ffrench, 'On Local History and Antiquities of Clone and Ferns Parish Churches', The Irish Builder, 35:812, Oct. 15th, 1893, 231-3.

H. G. Leask, Irish Churches and Monastic Buildings, I, Dundalk 1955,163.

M. Moore, Archaeological Inventory of County Wexford, Dublin, 1996, 125.

J. O'Donovan, Ordnance Survey Letters relating to the Antiquities of County Wexford (unpublished typescript, 1848).