Church, Beaugreen Glebe, Co. Donegal
Standing in Beaugreen Glebe, County Donegal, the remnants of Killaghtee Old Church tell a story of continuous worship spanning centuries.
Church, Beaugreen Glebe, Co. Donegal
This medieval church served its community faithfully until 1826, when the congregation moved to a newly built Church of Ireland parish church. Today, what remains is a haunting fragment of ecclesiastical architecture; primarily the eastern gable and a section of the south wall, both constructed from roughly coursed rubble stone with traces of the original plaster still clinging to the weathered surfaces.
The most striking feature of these ruins is the east window, a fine example of late Romanesque or Transitional architecture. This semi-circular headed window displays sophisticated stonework, with its light framed by an elegant architrave featuring a keel-moulded arris between plain rolls. The exterior boasts a bold roll-moulding that would have caught the eye of medieval worshippers approaching the church. Interestingly, the window bears evidence of later modifications; tool marks on the jambs show where iron bars were subsequently inserted, likely for security purposes, and this secondary work widened the original opening, causing the roll moulding to terminate abruptly against the redressed stone.
The church’s long history is written in its walls through various phases of alteration and repair. The Civil Survey of 1654-6 noted the building was undergoing repairs, and these mid-seventeenth century renovations are likely visible in the reconstructed rear-vault of the east window and the upper section of the gable. The south wall contains multiple window embrasures showing a complex sequence of replacements; earlier segment-headed windows were blocked and new openings created, each generation leaving its mark on the structure. The surrounding graveyard contains additional archaeological features, including a cross-inscribed slab to the southwest of the church, whilst two damaged bullaun stones were reported here in 1977, though their current whereabouts remain unknown.





