Saint Joseph's Catholic Church, RATHMORE, Rathmore, KERRY

Description

Freestanding single- and double-height Gothic Revival style Roman Catholic church, built c. 1865, comprising six-bay double-height nave with six-bay single-storey lean-to aisles to north-west and to south-east elevations, entrance bay to south-west gable, single-bay single-storey gabled projecting porches to west and to south corners, two-bay single-storey sacristy projection to east corner and having four-bay single-storey linking wing (to convent) at right angles to north-east possibly incorporating fabric of earlier building, built c. 1800. Renovated and extended, c. 1970, with single-bay single-storey projecting bay added to south-west elevation of sacristy having single-bay single-storey flat-roofed projecting entrance bay to south-west. Pitched slate roof to nave with lean-to roofs to aisles, limestone corbels support profiled cast-iron gutters and cast-iron hoppers and downpipes. Sandstone rubble walls with limestone ashlar quoins and plinth course, iron tie plates to nave walls, inset blocks of limestone ashlar to gable walls, east wall partly rebuilt. Paired lancet windows with limestone surrounds to nave, single lancets to west front, septfoil to west front. Pointed arch doorways with limestone surrounds, having hood moulding to west door, with boarded ledged and braced double-leaf doors. Single-volume interior with side aisles having pointed-arched arcades on limestone columns. Open scissor-truss roof to nave and single-pitched roofs to aisles. Chancel reordered. Decorative iron screen to south chapel with glazed screen behind c. 1910. Graveyard to site with various cut-stone grave markers, c. 1870-present. Freestanding concrete belfry to south west with four columns.