Architectural fragment, Ballycallan, Co. Kilkenny
Co. Kilkenny |
Ritual/Ceremonial
In the fabric of an ordinary Kilkenny schoolhouse, there may or may not be the bones of a medieval church.
The building at Ballycallan, which began life as a chapel, was extended at some point with stone taken from the ruins of Kilballykeefe church. The stones were repurposed to build a porch, absorbed into a new structure, and in the process lost whatever legibility they once had as medieval masonry.
The source for this is Holahan, writing in 1883, who noted that the Kilballykeefe stones had been deliberately relocated to Ballycallan for the construction work. Kilballykeefe was a medieval parish church, and the movement of dressed stone from ruined ecclesiastical buildings into later construction was a common enough practice across rural Ireland, where cut limestone was a practical resource as much as a historical one. When the site was examined in 1994, no medieval fabric could be identified in the external limestone rubble of the schoolhouse, which had also been rendered on the inside, further obscuring any trace of earlier material. The stones, if they are still there, are effectively invisible.