Survey Data
Reg No
30410340
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Archaeological, Architectural, Artistic, Historical
Previous Name
Newtown Church
Original Use
Mausoleum
In Use As
Mausoleum
Date
1825 - 1835
Coordinates
139582, 216832
Date Recorded
04/09/2009
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Gothic Revival single-cell mausoleum, dated 1830, incorporated into ruins of medieval Drumacoo Church (built c.1250). Presents mainly blank front (east) wall. Recent pitched slate roof at lower level than previous roof, having crenellations and pinnacles. Tooled cut-stone walls with tooled stone pilaster buttresses. Moulded limestone date plaque over entrance. Pointed arch window opening to west gable having tooled stone surround and cast-iron Y-tracery. Pointed-arch door opening having carved chamfered stone surround with colonettes continuing to moulding to archivolt, carved lintel, sheet metal door and tympanum with arcaded panels to door and Y-tracery to tympanum. Set within graveyard and bounded by stone walls.
Appraisal
Incorporated into the ruins of Drumacoo Church, on the site of an early monastic settlement, this Gothic inspired mausoleum was built for the Lady Harriet St George by her husband Arthur F. St George, the occupants of Tyrone House and Kilcolgan Castle. The mausoleum is referred to by the English poet laureate John Betjeman (1906-84) in his poem 'Ireland with Emily'. "There in pinnacled protection/One extinguished family waits/A Church of Ireland resurrection/By the broken, rusty gates./Sheepswool, straw and droppings cover,/Graves of spinster, rake and lover,/Whose fantastic mausoleum,/sings its own seablown Te Deum,/In and out the slipping slates."