This church is what gives the town its name, An Teampall Mór, The Big Church, due to its impressive size. At the time of the construction it was the parish church.
It was built around 1200 on a land donated to the Abbey of St. Thomas in Dublin by the the Butler family, a powerful and important Norman family. Next to the church is a moated graveyard. Both church and graveyard are today in the Templemore Demesne, locally known as the Town Park. To the west and north of the ruins is a Pitch and Putt Club.
The east (100°) window is pointed arch. A few memorials are around or below this window.
The west gable is the most fascinating part of the building. There's a large round-headed doorway in the west wall, which is surmounted by a roof gable with a wonderful flamboyant tracery window flanked by a smaller flat headed window. The moulding of the west window is adorned with two nice floral motifs. On the top of the gable there's the bell cot.
A round-headed doorway is in the north wall. On this side of the church there's an old graveyard with the remains of another building with an archway that leads to the east side of the church. There's also an obelisk in the graveyard. The burial ground extends to the east of the church with some amazing chest tombs and memorials.
The graveyard was in use from medieval times to the second half of the 19th century.
This was our last visit for the year 2019.
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