Rathfranpark

Area

218,351 m² (21.84 ha, 53.96 acres)

Buildings

4 buildings touch it. Their footprint covers 615 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

Rathfranpark

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

• Special Protection Area: Killala Bay/Moy Estuary SPA 004036

Recorded monuments around it

This parcel is in the zone of notification of 11 recorded monuments.

• MA015-029 Ringfort - unclassified
  Description

  Located on a low rise in rolling pasture with gradual fall of ground to SE towards the Palmerstown River. There is rath (MA015-030----) c. 150m to SSE. This possible ringfort is shown on the1838 and 1922 OS maps as a circular enclosure (diam. 25-30m). It was levelled during land reclamation works; there is no visible trace at ground level. Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy Date of upload: 15 November 2018

• MA015-030 Ringfort - rath
  Description

  Straddles a low rise in rolling pasture, with a gradual fall of ground to SE towards the Palmerstown River. Roughly circular, raised area (28.8m NE-SW; 25.6m NW-SE) defined by an earthen bank (Wth 5.6m; int. H 0.7m; ext. H 1.55m at SW, c. 2m at NE). The bank is generally rather low, with a broad internal slump. Stones protruding from on the internal face at the SW-W may be the remnants of a kerb or stone facing. A section (L12m) of the bank at the ESE-S has been levelled and survives only a low rise. The original entrance may have been in this area. The interior slopes down gently from centre to SE. There is a shallow, circular hollow (diam. 1.2m; D0.2m) in the N of the interior. A section (L 4m) of the external face of the bank at NNW has been cut away, and there is also evidence of erosion of the bank by farm stock. Field fences skirt the rath at SE, S and W. A possible rath (MA015-030----), now destroyed, is located c. 150m to NNW. Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy Date of upload: 15 November 2018

• MA015-031 Historic town
  Description

  The Archaeological Survey of Ireland (ASI) is in the process of providing information on all monuments on The Historic Environment Viewer (HEV). Currently the information for this record has not been uploaded. To access available information for research purposes please make an appointment in advance with the Archive Unit (open Fridays 10.00 am – 5.00 pm), Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, The Custom House, Dublin 1 D01W6XO or email NMarchive@housing.gov.ie.

• MA015-031001 Church
  Description

  Within a graveyard (MA015-031002-), located on top of a hillock on the shores of the Palmerstown River. estuary. This medieval church is mentioned in Papal Letters in the 'Calendar of the Papal Register relating to Great Britain and Ireland': in 1448-9 (Papal Letters 9) it is referred to as the ‘perpetual vicarage of Rathfran’, and in 1455 (Papal Letters 10) its vicar William OMochan was described as an excommunicate who continued to celebrate mass (Bradley and Dunne 1989, 43). It is not shown on the 1838 OS 6-inch map, but on the 1922 edition it is named ‘Templemurry Church (in Ruins)’, indicating that it was dedicated to the Virgin Mary. It consists of the very ruined remains of a rectangular building (c. 9m E−W; c. 5.5m N−S) with walls (T c. 0.6-0.7m) of mortared stone. The E and W gables have fallen; sod-covered heaps of stone mark their original location. Both the N and S walls are largely concealed by overgrowth, and little of their structure can be seen. Traces of rough lime render/plaster adhere to the inner face of both walls. The N wall survives to a height of 0.6m, with its inner face still intact, but its external face is a sod-covered stony slump; the S wall retains a height of 1.1m at its W end, and remnants of a buttress lean against its external face at the E end. In the 1980’s a piscine was noted towards the E end of the S wall; its pointed trefoil arch had fallen and was lying on the ground (Bradley and Dunne 1989, 43). These features are no longer visible. Graveslabs, engulfed in overgrowth, cover most of the internal space. Attached images: MA015-031001-_01.JPG Interior of church; N wall at Right; viewed from E MA015-031001-_02.JPG S wall viewed from W Compiled by: Jane O'Shaughnessy Date of upload: 24 October 2018

• MA015-031002 Graveyard
  Description

  This graveyard encompasses a hillock located at the shoreline on the inner tidal reaches of the Palmerstown River estuary. The graveyard is named ‘Templemurry Grave Yard’ on the 1838 and 1922 OS 6-inch maps. On the 1838 edition it is indicated as a roughly D-shaped area (c. 60m NW−SE; c. 40m NE−SW), delineated by a curving dashed line; by the time of the 1922 edition, the graveyard had been expanded to W and the E, and was enclosed by a straight wall at N and E. Later in the 20th-century it was further expanded to N and NE to its current extent, bordered at N by a concrete wall, at E by a mortared stone wall and defined along the SW side by the shoreline scarp. The oldest part of the graveyard, which incorporates a ruined medieval church (MA015-031001-), is located on the level top of the hillock, an area of about 30m in diameter, but it also extends down the S and SW-facing slopes where the ground falls away towards the shoreline. There is a high density of graves, many of which are marked by low, uninscribed upright stone markers, with the outline of some graves indicated by low rectangular heaps small stones. Intermixed with these, are formal 18th- and 19th-century headstones, ledgers, and a small number of box and table tombs, as well as a few burial plots enclosed by a low wall or wrought-iron railings. The ground surface is uneven, with areas of surface subsidence that have disturbed or displaced some gravemarkers. The oldest part of the graveyard is densely vegetated with long grass, ivy and moss, and there is a line of impenetrable overgrowth at the base of the slope, bordering the shoreline. Such overgrowth may not have been a problem in 1898, when visitors to the graveyard complained that ‘certainly it is not much to the credit of the Killala Poor-Law Guardians that they still permit the bullocks of graziers to roam freely over its graves.’ (Proceedings, ‘The Excursion’. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 1898, vol. 28, 293). There is asouterrain (MA015-031004-) in the NW slope of the hillock, on the N edge of the oldest part of the graveyard; a holy well (MA015-031003-) is located downslope at the W limits of the graveyard, and a medieval friary (MA015-031005-) is located 140m to W. Attached images: MA015-031002-_01.JPG Highest part of the graveyard, just W of the church MA015-031002-_02.JPG Box tomb MA015-031002-_03.JPG Summit of the hill. Rathfran abbey visible in distance. MA015-031002-_04.JPG 19th-century graveslab MA015-031002-_05.JPG Early 19th-century headstone Compiled by: Jane O'Shaughnessy Date of upload: 23 October 2018

• MA015-031003 Ritual site - holy well
  Description

  In a narrow depression at the base of a W-facing slope of a hillock, on the W margins of a graveyard (MA015-031002-). There is a medieval church (MA015-031001-) 90m to SE on top of the hill. Indicated on the 1838 and 1922 OS 6-inch maps as ‘Holy Well’, the rectangular housing (int. dims. 1.05m E−W; 0.6m N−S; H 0.82m) of mortared stone captures a natural spring which flows from the base of the slope. The structure is built into the hill slope. The façade is well finished with regular-shaped blocks of stone, and is topped by a roughly triangular apex incorporating a small rectangular recess. There is a central rectangular opening into the interior which is roofed by a single horizontal slab. The outflow from the well extends to W, in a shallow, open channel which intersects with a stream flowing SE into the estuary. The well was dedicated to St. Brendan, and was traditionally visited on Garland Sunday (Bradley and Dunne 1989, 45). Attached image: MA015-031003-_01.JPG viewed from NW Compiled by: Jane O'Shaughnessy Date of upload: 24 October 2018

• MA015-031004 Souterrain
  Description

  In a graveyard (MA015-031002-), located at the break of slope on the NW slope of the hillock which the graveyard encompasses. According to local information, this souterrain was uncovered during grave-digging in the second half of the 20th century, but its exact location was not recorded at that time (Bradley and Dunne 1989, 46). In 2018, ground subsidence exposed the souterrain again. The surface opening (0.6m E−W; 0.4m N−S) was too narrow and unstable to allow access to the souterrain, however, two in situ roof lintels were visible at a depth of c. 1m below ground surface, covering a chamber; one lintel with a long axis aligned roughly NW-SE, the other set perpendicular to the E end of the former, and slightly higher than it. A third large stone, tipping downwards into the cavity from its N side, may be a displaced lintel. A portion of the chamber wall was also visible, consisting of seven courses of corbelled, dry-stone walling, aligned NNE−SSW (Zajac 2019, 7). In February 2019 archaeologically-monitored remedial works were undertaken to preserve the souterrain and insure public safety: a concrete slab was laid down to seal the opening into the souterrain, and it was then covered with soil (Zajac 2019). Attached images: MA015-031004-_01.JPG surface opening viewed from E MA015-031004-_02.JPG in situ lintels visible in base of subsidence hole, viewed from W MA015-031004-_03.JPG in situ lintel visible in base of subsidence hole, viewed from E Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy Date of upload: 8 April 2019

• MA015-031005 Religious house - Dominican friars
  Description

  In pasture, located on lowlying ground on the N bank of the Palmerstown River, at a point where the river becomes tidal and opens into Rathfran Bay, an estuarine inlet on the W side of the broad Killala Bay. This location, to our eyes tranquil and scenic, overlooking the river and sheltered by gently rising ground at W, N and E, would have provided the monastery with strategic access to transport, trade and fishing in the bay and along the course of the river. This is a National Monument in state ownership (no. 269). Named ‘Rathfran Abbey’ on the 1838 and 1922 OS 6-inch maps, it is more accurately defined as a friary, founded in 1274 for the order of Friars Preachers or Dominicans, and dedicated to the Holy Cross. There is some uncertainty about the founder: it may have a member the d’Exeter/Mac Jordans family, perhaps Sir Richard D’Exeter, or it may have been Sir William de Burgh, sometime Lord Justice of Ireland, whose wife was a d’Exeter. Events in the turbulent history of the friary during the 15th and 16th centuries are catalogued by Gwynne and Hadcock (1970, 228): Letters in the Calendar of Papal Register record that in 1438 an indulgence was granted to those giving alms and donations towards refurbishmentthe of the friary as it was without a refectory, bell tower and bell, and other buildings were becoming ruinous; in 1458 it was once again reported as being impoverished and reduced by wars and other disasters; in 1513 the Annals of Ulster record that Edmond Mac William de Burgo was killed in the friary by his nephews, the sons of his brother Walter; in 1577 following the Dissolution of the Monasteries, a lease of the site ‘of the late dissolved house of Fryers Preachers of Rathbranne, by the sea’’ was made to Thomas Exeter, at which time the friary had one small house adjoining and a ruinous mill; in 1590 the Annals of Loch Cé record that the abbey was burned by Sir Richard Bingham, Governor of Connacht, and in 1596 the property was granted to Wm. Taaffe. It is known that, despite the loss of their monastery, Dominican friars maintained a presence in the neighbourhood up to the end of the 18th century: In 1731 two friars were living at Templemurray and Ballysakeery, and in 1756 five were living in a cottage in Mullaghnacroiste. The remains of the friary stand stark and roofless. They consist of a rectangular nave and chancel church, with a side chapel on the S side of the nave, a two-storey domestic building attached to the NE end of the chancel, and immediately to N of the church, a cloister surrounded by remnants of a domestic range, and immediately to N of that, a second courtyard enclosed by a further range of buildings. Two main building phases are evident: the primary construction of the church and cloister in the 13th century, followed in the late 14th/15th century, and later, by episodes of rebuilding and expansion, including remodelling of the chancel windows, changes to the nave, and the additions of the side chapel at S, the two-storey residence to NE, and a series of external buttresses. The church (int. 33.5m E–W; 7.2m N–S) is constructed of mortared limestone rubble, and the walls stand to almost their full original height. The main entrance is through a doorway in the W gable, which does not retain its original stonework. The interior appears now as a long, undifferentiated space, but originally a rood screen would have separated the chancel at E, where the altar stood, from the nave at W. The chancel is dominated by a large window spanning much of the width of the E gable; the window was originally a three-light structure, but has collapsed, and all that survives are the banded angle shafts on the interior splay of the embrasure. Also lighting the chancel is a row of five tall, two-light windows, with plain pointed heads, in the S wall. Three of these windows were modified in the later medieval period: two were partly blocked up to create smaller windows, one with round-arched heads, and the westernmost in the row was reduced to a single light when it was slighted by the construction of the E wall of the S chapel. The easternmost window was from the beginning shorter than the other four, allowing space beneath for a pair of recesses for a piscina (water basin with drainage hole) and sidilia (seats for clergy). The piscina recess has a finely moulded trefoil head, and contains two shelves and twin basins. The larger, sedilia recess, immediately to W, has a semicircular moulded arch. A finely matched pair of trefoil-headed recesses, directly opposite, in the N chancel wall, may have been tomb recesses. A projecting, moulded horizontal band or string course, which respects the piscina and sidilia recesses, extends W along the S wall beneath the row of windows, terminating just beyond the fifth window in an oval carved-stone human head, positioned on its side. This decorative terminal, which is now greatly eroded, may mark the original dividing line between the chancel and nave. Three tall, single-light lancet windows in the S wall originally lit the nave, but all were blocked up when the S chapel was attached to the nave. There is a small, trefoil-headed piscina recess in the S wall of the nave, with a shelf and twin basins. To W of this is a doorway leading from the nave into the side chapel. It has a hanging eye on the W side of its embrasure, which would have held a wooden door. A second doorway opens from the nave into the chapel at the W end of the S wall. The side chapel (16.6m E–W; 3.7m N–S) was probably constructed in the late 14th- or early 15th-century. It extends roughly half way along the S wall of the church, with its W wall flush with, but not keyed into, the W gable of the church. It was accessed from outside through a doorway (now blocked up) at the W end of its S wall. The highlight of the chapel is its elegant E window, a twin-light pointed-arched lancet, with finely executed quatrefoil tracery, and external hood moulding. In the main church, above the doorway in the W gable, there is a twin-light window with round-arched heads, and hollow spandrels beneath a square-headed hood moulding on the exterior face. This is a late insertion, replacing an earlier window. Directly above the window, in the external wall face, there is a small stone crucifixion plaque, carved in false relief, with a projecting stone hood above it. Two doorways (the westernmost now blocked up) in the N wall of the nave open directly onto the cloister ambulatory or walkway, which was originally roofed; the support stones for the roof still project from the external wall of the church. The cloister arcade does not survive, and the square cloister and its enclosing domestic range are now reduced to low walls/foundations. The domestic range is visible in outline as a series of contiguous, interconnected rectangular rooms that border the cloister at W, N and E: these would originally have been two-story buildings, housing the refectory, kitchens, dormitory, store rooms, etc. One chamber at the SE corner of the range retains a partly intact vaulted roof. Unusually, there is a second square courtyard immediately to N, enclosed on the W, N and E by another suite of rectangular buildings/rooms, all now reduced to wall footings. The domestic range was also accessible from the chancel, through a pointed arched doorway, which opens into a narrow corridor or lobby. Immediately to W, are remnants of stairs which led to the upper storey of the cloistral range. To the E, another doorway opens into the ground floor of a narrow, two-story residential building, which projects to N from the chancel, with its E wall flush with the E gable of the chancel. It was probably added to the chancel in the late 14th- or early 15th-century, probably subsuming a pre-existing sacristy at ground floor level. An E–W cross wall divides the ground level into two rooms. The upper storey, possibly the prior’s quarters, is furnished with a large fireplace in the centre of t

• MA015-031006 Graveslab
  Description

  Located within a church (MA015-031005-), mounted on E gable, on the S side of the window embrasure. A trapezoidal-shaped slab, almost the entire surface of which is filled with finely executed, elaborate decoration in four panels, enclosed by an incised groove frame. Three panels are of dense, intricate foliage, and a fourth contains six animals, which appear to represent lions passant, arranged in three opposing pairs. A narrow plain band surrounds the decorated area, separating it from the finely moulded edges of the slab. There is no dedicatory inscription or date, but the style of carving suggests a 15th- or early 16th- century date. Blotches of lichen partly obscure the carving. Attached images: MA015-031006-_01.JPG -Graveslab MA015-031006-_02.JPG -detail of carved animal MA015-031006-_03.JPG -detail of carved foliage Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy Date of upload: 13 December 2018

• MA015-031007 Graveslab
  Description

  Located within a church (MA015-031005-) mounted on the E gable, on the N side of the window embrasure. A trapezoidal-shaped limestone slab, broadest at top. On it is carved in false relief, a shafted cross, with the crossing of the arms enclosed within a circle. The arms and shaft have expanded terminals. The arms extend the full width of the slab; the shaft extends almost the full length of the slab. Flanking the shaft is an inscription carved in false relief: on one side of the shaft, is a decorative IHS, and on the other, a Latin inscription extending in two vertical lines, which reads: IOHANNES O MMNILA ME FIERI FECIT 1618. Attached images: MA015-031007-_01.JPG -Graveslab MA015-031006-_02.JPG -detail of carving Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy Date of upload: 13 December 2018

And 1 more.

Architectural heritage

No building of the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage stands on this parcel.

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.