Church, Grallagh, Co. Mayo

Co. Mayo |

Churches & Chapels

Church, Grallagh, Co. Mayo

The western wall of this ruined church in Grallagh still rises to about two and a half metres, its roughly coursed sandstone blocks alternating between thick basal layers and thinner horizontal slabs, a trace of a doorway still just legible near its centre.

The rest of the building has not fared so well. The north wall has collapsed to little more than a grass-covered scarp, the south wall has been absorbed into a modern field boundary, and the east wall is a broad, sod-covered mound of tumbled stone. The whole structure sits on a low rise in undulating pasture, half-obscured by brambles, with the ground falling gently eastward towards a small stream.

The place is known locally as Kilmullin church, a name that was never formally recorded on the Ordnance Survey maps. The 1838 six-inch map shows a rectangular east-west building within a burial ground but does not identify it as a church; by the 1916 edition the building has disappeared from the cartography altogether, replaced only by the notation of a children's burial ground. That children's burial ground, known in Irish tradition as a cillín, a small unconsecrated plot typically used for unbaptised infants and others excluded from consecrated ground, still abuts the south wall of the ruined church and runs its full east-west length. The rectangular building itself measures roughly twelve metres east to west and six metres north to south, proportions consistent with a small medieval or early post-medieval rural church, though no founding date or dedication has been formally recorded. The local name Kilmullin suggests a possible dedication to a saint whose identity has not been pinned down in the available record.

The site sits in ordinary agricultural land and is partly swallowed by overgrowth, which means the remaining masonry is easier to miss than its two-and-a-half-metre wall might suggest. The west wall is the thing to look for, with its careful alternation of block sizes still visible despite the loss of much of its facing stone.

Rated 0 out of 5

Visitor Notes

Review type for post source and places source type not found
Added by
Picture of Pete F
Pete F
IrishHistory.com is passionate about helping people discover and connect with the rich stories of their local communities.
Please use the form below to submit any photos you may have of Church, Grallagh, Co. Mayo. We're happy to take any suggested edits you may have too. Please be advised it will take us some time to get to these submissions. Thank you.
Name
Email
Message
Upload images/documents
Maximum file size: 100 MB
If you'd like to add an image or a PDF please do it here.

Advertisement