Ballynahaglish Church, GLEBE (TR. BY.) BALLYNAHAGLISH ED, KERRY

Description

Detached three-bay double-height single-cell Board of First Fruits Church of Ireland church, built 1691, on a rectangular plan; single-bay three-stage tower to entrance (west) front on a square plan. "Improved", 1798, producing present composition. Closed, 1894. Dismantled, 1910. Now in ruins. Pitched roof now missing with remains of cut-limestone coping to gables, and no rainwater goods surviving on rough cut limestone eaves. Ivy-covered lime rendered battered walls with rough cut limestone flush quoins to corners; repointed coursed rough cut limestone walls (tower) with cut-limestone stringcourses including cut-limestone stringcourse supporting Irish battlemented parapet having cut-limestone coping. Round-headed window openings with cut-limestone sills, and concealed dressings framing rendered infill. Pointed-arch door opening (tower) with overgrown threshold, and cut-limestone surround with hood moulding on label stops. Lancet window openings (upper stages) with cut-limestone surrounds. Set in overgrown grounds with piers to perimeter having rough cut limestone stringcourses below capping supporting wrought iron double gates. NOTE: The earliest known depiction of a church on this site is a map (1587) showing the estate granted to (Sir) Edward Denny (1547-1600) by Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) 'for services to the Crown against the Desmonds [and] his participation in the massacre at Dún an Óir' (Dunne 2010, 5). That church was replaced by Sir Arthur Denny (1584-1619) or Sir Edward Denny (1605-46) and the new church was described (1837) by Samuel Lewis as 'an ancient structure built in 1619…situated on an eminence thence called Church-hill' (Lewis 1837 I, 156). An overgrown plaque records that the 'Steeple [was] Built By Subscription The year 1798 the Revd. Maynard Denny [d. 1812] Vicar' and the church was subsequently 'repaired by aid of a gift of £900 from the late Board of First Fruits [fl. 1711-1833] in 1820' (Lewis 1827 I, 156). The graveyard contains a wealth of headstones with the earliest marking the resting place 'OF TIMOTHY MORIARTY WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE THE 30th OF SEPtr 1717 AGED 11 YEARS'.