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St Gobnait, Ballyvourney, Cork

Location
(51°56′23″N, 9°9′50″W)
Ballyvourney
W 20 77
pre-1974 traditional (Republic of Ireland) Cork
now Cork
medieval Cloyne
now Cloyne
  • Tessa Garton

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Feature Sets
Description

Ruined church of late medieval date, with reused Romanesque head set in E gable of nave, over the chancel arch. There is also a late medieval sheela-na-gig over the S window.

History

A monastery for nuns was built by St Abban for St Gobnata. St Gobnata and the ruined church were still being venerated in the 18thc. The nunnery may have been founded in the 6th or 7thc. and is unlikely to have existed after c.1172 (Gwynn and Hadcock, 1970, 313).

Features

Interior Features

Interior Decoration

Miscellaneous
Comments/Opinions

The head is described as a voussoir in the Shell Guide to Ireland, but there is no evidence of any voussoir-shaped stone where it is set into the wall and it appears rather to have been a corbel. The style suggests a probable 12thc. date.

Bibliography

A. Gwynn and R.N. Hadcock,, Medieval Religious Houses, Ireland, Dublin, 1970, 313.

F. Henry, ‘The Decorated Stones at Ballyvourney’, JCHAS, 112, no.185, 1952.

M. Killanin and M. Duignan, The Shell Guide to Ireland, London, 1962, 3rd ed. 1989, 365.

D. O hEaluighthe, ‘St Gobnat of Ballyvourney’, JCHAS, 57, 1952, 43-61.

M.J. O’Kelly, ‘St. Gobnat’s House, Ballyvourney, Co. Cork’, JCHAS, 57, 1952, 18-40.

D. Power et al , Archaeological Inventory of Co. Cork, Vol. III, Dublin, 1997, 378.