Home

Who
What
Where
When
Why
Oughaval Church
 

County

Laois

Coordinates

N 53° 00' 32.1"   W 007° 08' 01.0"

Nearest town

Stradbally

Grid Ref.

S 58206 95672

Map No.

55

Elevation a.s.l. (m)

129

Date of visit

Monday 10 June 2013

GPS Accuracy (m)

3
Show Google Map              Show Monuments in the area

    
    
   
PREVIOUS      NEXT
The church is slightly elevated above the surrounding graveyard. A flight of steps gives access to the building.


It's a quite unusually shaped church. It's compact and taller than other churches. It measures about 24 metres in length and 10 metres in width. The roof above the east (72°) section is still present and if seen from the east the building might resemble one of the de Birmingham castles that can be seen in county Galway.
This church was erected in the area of an earlier monastery founded by St. Colman mac Ua Laoighse, also known as St. Colman of Oughaval. He was a disciple of St. Columba of Iona, Scotland, and of St. Fintan, abbot of Clonenagh. The exact location of this early monastery is unknown.
Oughaval was also the place where the famous Book of Leinster, written between 1151 and 1201, was kept for two or three centuries.
The church was built in two phases. The first section built was the nave dating to the 12th century, but now it's a complete ruin. Only the northwest corner wall and the south wall survive. Against the south wall of the nave is a small mortuary chapel.
In the 18th century the chancel was added. The floor of the chancel is at a higher level than the floor of the nave to accomodate a crypt underneath for the Cosby family of Stradbally Hall. The chancel has a barrel vaulted ceiling, with a round-headed east window flanked by two rectangular and smaller windows, and three arcades in the south and the north walls where small semi-circular windows open.
On the outer side of the south wall there's a plaque commemorating Thomas Douglas, preceptor for the Cosby family for 52 years. He died on October 6th, 1734, at the age of 104 years.
The church stands on a low mound with a surrounding graveyard.
We parked the car park outside the enclosing wall of the graveyard to the southwest of the church, but the graveyard has an access from the northeast (40°) as well and this is much more striking, with a pathway lined by two elegant rows of cypresses.


Browse by Monument Type
Browse by County
Browse by Date of Visit
Browse by Map Number

A-Z List

Clickable Counties
Clickable OS Maps Grid

Find a Map

Multimap

The days before GPS

The Stones in the Movies

Glossary
Links
Guestbook
FAQ

What's NEW?


Search


Site view counter: 25402639

Copyright © 1994-2024 Antonio D'Imperio
All the photos, the graphics and the texts on this website are automatically copyrighted to me under the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works 1886. Any violation of the copyright will be pursued according to the applicable laws.

info@irishstones.org

Powered by AxeCMS/CustomEngine(V0.25.00 build 999) by Sergio "Axeman" Lorenzetti. (C) 2009-2015

counter