Cloonaghmore

Area

30,052 m² (3.01 ha, 7.43 acres)

Buildings

3 buildings touch it. Their footprint covers 240 m².

Zoning

No zone of a development plan covers it in the national zoning. Outside zoned towns and villages, the county development plan's rural policies apply.

Townland

Cloonaghmore

Planning applications on this parcel

No planning application touches this parcel in the national file, which goes back to 2010.

Source: National Planning Applications, Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, CC BY 4.0. Applicants are not shown.

Designated sites

No designated site (Special Area of Conservation, Special Protection Area, Natural Heritage Area or proposed one) touches this parcel.

Recorded monuments around it

This parcel is in the zone of notification of 4 recorded monuments.

• LF011-036001 Religious house - Cistercian monks
  Description

  On low-lying ground, c. 40m to the NE of a stream, and within a graveyard (LF011-036004-). Said to have been ‘founded by St Patrick, who appointed St Guasacht its first abbot: it was refounded for monks of the Cistercian order, and dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, in 1205, by Lord Richard Tuit’, who was subsequently interred here in 1211 (Lewis 1837, vol. 1, 3). It is a daughter house of St Mary's abbey (DU018-343----), Dublin (Cal. papal letters, vol. 6, 198). Also known as the monastery of 'St. Mary's de Lera alias de Grenardo' (ibid. vol. 9, 29). In 1410 the pope issued an indulgence to penitents who gave 'alms for the conservation and repair of church and monastery, which monastery has part of its buildings threatening ruin and collapsed' (ibid., 218). It is not clear if these repairs were undertaken as in 1422 a monk informed the pope that the 'monastery is threatened with ruin by the negligence of abbot Richard' (ibid. vol. 7, 233). A second indulgence was issued in 1434 5 (ibid. vol. 8, 505-6). In 1552, after the dissolution of the monasteries, it was leased to Richard Nugent (Henry VIII-Eliz., vol. 1, 368) and in 1612 it was granted to Francis Shane (Cal. pat. rolls Ire., Jas I, 244). Upstanding remains indicate that the original 13th-century abbey church consisted of a nave divided from the chancel by a central crossing-tower. Transepts extended off the N and S sides of the crossing-tower and a vaulted chamber or small chapel extended off the N side of the chancel. The cloister and conventual range of buildings were located on the S side of the church (Stalley 1987, 241). Only the N, S and W sides of the crossing-tower (ext. dims. 10.6m N-S; 10.3m E-W; wall T 1m) and the adjoining sections of the N and S walls of the church survive, as well as traces of the transepts and chapel. A later turret was inserted in the angle between the S transept and the S wall of the nave. The crossing-tower, constructed of roughly coursed limestone rubble, originally had four high pointed arches of cut sandstone. In the 15th century the N and S arches were partially infilled to support a stone barrel-vaulted roof springing from N to S (ibid.). Possible remains of the original rib vaulting can be seen in the SW angle. Seven of eight wooden beam holes are visible in the N wall, just below the springing of the vault, and these may have supported a floor that was accessed through a square-headed doorway in the centre of the W wall of the tower. The springing of the stone vault over the ground floor of the small chapel is visible on the external face of the N wall of the chancel, as is the scar line of its roof. This structure was accessed from the almost completely destroyed N transept. The turret, housing a spiral stairs, may have replaced an earlier S aisle (ibid.) and it cuts across the original S and W arches of the crossing-tower. It is accessed through a broken-out sandstone doorway in the NW angle of the S transept and is lit by a series of square-headed narrow windows with sandstone surrounds. The stairs accessed the floor levels above the crossing-tower. Smaller pointed archways were inserted in the fill of the N and S arches. A tall pointed recessed niche is visible to the W of this opening in the N arch. A poorly preserved carving in relief on the chamfered face of its dressed stone surround may be a 15th-century mason's mark. Directly opposite in the infill of the S arch are the remains of a similar niche. At first-floor level a sheela-na-gig (LF011-036002-) is visible. Scar lines of steeply pitched roofs can still be seen on the external faces W and N walls of the crossing-tower. Narrow square-headed doorways located just below the scar lines gave access to the roof space over the nave and to an inserted floor over the N transept. A second square-headed doorway is visible above the doorway in the N wall and a series of putlog holes are also visible in this wall. In the 16th century the crossing-tower may have been modified again and turned into a fortified dwelling while the rest of the abbey buildings fell into a ruinous condition (ibid.). No visible surface trace of the cloister survives. In the field to the S low undulating earthworks appear to represent the grass-covered wall-footings of the S range of conventual buildings. About 25m to the NW of the abbey the wall-footings of an 18th/19th-century church (LF011-036003-) are evident. Numerous architectural fragments, including a dumb-bell pier from the cloister, are visible in the surrounding graveyard. In the field to the E very wide cultivation ridges run diagonally across the field from NE-SW. They may be associated with the abbey. (McNamee 1940a, 11; 1940b, 38; ITA Survey 1944; Hartnett 1954, 181; Leask 1960, vol. 3, 43, 45; O'Donovan 2003, 27) Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 4 June 2013

• LF011-036002 Sheela-na-gig
  Description

  Protruding from the inner face of the S wall of the crossing‑tower of the Cistercian abbey of Abbeylara (LF011‑036001‑), at a height of c. 2.5m, is a decorated figure carving in sandstone (dims. 0.37m x 0.22m). The carving has been interpreted as a very weathered representation of a sheela‑na‑gig (Guest 1936, 118; Andersen 1977, 144; McMahon and Roberts 2001, 111; Freitag 2004, 121; Roberts 2009, No. 84), although an alternative view has been proposed by Harnett (1954, 181) who suggested that it might be 'taken as a crude representation of a Virgin and Child' with the female genitalia being represented as an oval or lozenge-shaped shield in which is a figure in low relief of an infant. The condition of the carving makes it impossible to classify with any degree of certainty and the interpretation given is purely tentative. Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 16 April 2012

• LF011-036003 Church
  Description

  Within a graveyard (LF011-036004-) c. 25m NW of a Cistercian abbey (LF011-036001-) are the wall-footings of a church (ext. dims. 14.1m E-W, 8.45m N-S, Wall T 0.85m). It is depicted as a church located in the NW quadrant of the graveyard on all eds. of the OS 6-inch map but it is not possible to assign a date to it on the basis of the upstanding remains. The building was probably a late 18th or early 19th century Church of Ireland church. Some of the dressed stone from this demolished church appears to have been incorporated into the fabric of the graveyard wall to the SW of the church site. It was described in the early 19th century as the parish church of Lerha or Abbey-Laragh which now 'occupies the site of the former monastic buildings' (Brewer, J.N., The Beauties of Ireland (1826) vol. 2, 263). This church appears to be the 'new church' recorded by Nicholas Carlisle in 1810 (Carlisle 1810, 2). (ITA Survey 1944) Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 26 August 2011

• LF011-036004 Graveyard
  Description

  Associated with the Cistercian abbey (LF011-036001-) that lies in its E end; wall footings of an 18th/19th-century church (LF011-036003-) are evident in the NW quadrant. This large subrectangular graveyard (51m E-W; 43m N-S) is enclosed by a stone wall. Access is gained at the NW corner. It is no longer in use and contains memorials dating from the 18th to the 20th centuries. Numerous architectural fragments, including a dumb-bell pier from the cloister, are visible within it and in the external face of the S wall. Archaeological testing for a proposed treatment plant serving a residential development c. 10m to the N of the NE corner of the boundary wall in 2002 and 2005 revealed no archaeological features or artifacts (Delaney 2008, 251). (Lennon 2005) Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 4 June 2013

Architectural heritage

• House, 1780–1820 · Regional interest
  Description

  Detached three-bay single-storey vernacular house, built c. 1800, now disused. Pitched corrugated-metal roof with squared rubble limestone chimneystack to the northwest gable end. Painted smooth rendered walls with square-headed window openings having timber casement windows and painted stone sills. Central square-headed door openings with timber door. Wrought-iron gate to southwest of site. Road-fronted to the centre of Abbeylara.

Designated sites: National Parks and Wildlife Service. Recorded monuments: Sites and Monuments Record, National Monuments Service. Buildings: National Inventory of Architectural Heritage. Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, CC BY 4.0. Works at or in relation to a recorded monument need two months' written notice to the National Monuments Service (National Monuments (Amendment) Act 1994, section 12).

Ground and risks

Radon

At the centre of this parcel, about 1 in 10 homes in this area is likely to have high radon levels. Testing a home

Landslides

The 1:50,000 map rates the landslide susceptibility here as low, partly inferred.

Terrain model

No LiDAR survey of the Office of Public Works covers the centre of this parcel.

Flooding

The Office of Public Works publishes its flood maps on floodinfo.ie.

Radon Risk Map of Ireland, Environmental Protection Agency, and Landslide Susceptibility Classification, Geological Survey Ireland, both under CC BY 4.0. LiDAR: contains Irish Public Sector Data (Geological Survey Ireland & the Office of Public Works) licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.

Download this parcel as DXF, in Irish Transverse Mercator metres, with its neighbours and buildings, for a drawing program. GeoJSON, in WGS 84, suits a map, and KML opens in Google Earth.

Registered freehold land, Tailte Éireann, CC BY 4.0. A parcel is the land of a title, not an address. The owner's name is in the Land Registry of Tailte Éireann: a copy of the folio can be ordered on landdirect.ie, for a fee.