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Ballyhea church, Ballyhea, Cork

Location
(52°19′48″N, 8°39′38″W)
Ballyhay (Ballyhea)
R 55 20
pre-1974 traditional (Republic of Ireland) Cork
now Cork
medieval Cloyne
now Cloyne
  • Roger Stalley

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Feature Sets
Description

A long, narrow two cell church, which at some point has been reduced in length by the insertion of a cross wall. (nave 18.83 m x 9.06 m, chancel 18.03 m x 8.34 m). The W and N walls of the nave, and most of the N wall and E end of the S wall of the chancel have fallen. The ruins were heavily covered with ivy.

History

The early history of the church is not known. Brady (1863, II, 34-6) quotes a 1224 reference to the church at Ballyhay, and it is listed in the Papal taxation of 1291. The church is recorded as 'in ruins' during a Visitation of 1615, but the chancel was in repair by 1694.

Features

Exterior Features

Doorways

Exterior Decoration

Comments/Opinions

The gable has often been regarded as the remnants of an Hiberno-Romanesque tangent gable, but this is open to doubt. The blocked door has no Romanesque features and twelfth-century doorways were usually placed in the west, not the south, wall. It is difficult to imagine how a typical Romanesque door with a gable could have left such an imprint. It is more likely that this doorway belongs to a much later period and was once surrounded by a projecting wooden porch. The corbels are clearly not in their original position, but their height corresponds with the course of masonry in which they are set. As this masonry is part of the gable, it suggests that neither the door not the gable belong to the Romanesque era.

Corbels of the Ballyhay type are often employed as label stops. If this was the case, it suggests there was once a Romanesque portal, no doubt in the west wall. However, as there is no other evidence for such a door, it is not impossible that the corbels were brought to Ballyhay at a later period.

Bibliography

W. M. Brady, Clerical and Parochial Records of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, Cork, 1863, II, 34-6.

D. Power, S. Lane, et al, Archaeological Inventory of County Cork, 4:2, Dublin, 2000, 554-5.
H. G. Leask, Irish Churches and Monastic Buildings, I, Dundalk, 1955, 166-7.