Building, Ballyline, Co. Clare
Co. Clare |
Utility Structures
In a field in Ballyline, County Clare, a set of overgrown walls marks out the footprint of a rectangular building that has never been fully explained.
Measuring roughly thirteen metres along its longer axis and eight and a half metres across, it is not a grand structure, but its proportions are deliberate, and the walls, though smothered in vegetation, are coherent enough to show up clearly on aerial photography.
What makes the building quietly interesting is its proximity to Templeline church and graveyard, which lie only about fifty metres to the south-east. The "Temple" element in place names of this kind typically signals an early ecclesiastical site, often medieval in origin, and it is difficult not to wonder whether this building was connected to that complex in some functional way, perhaps as an ancillary structure associated with the church. Researcher Conn Herriott recorded its presence, and orthophotography captured it clearly enough to confirm the walls are still standing, if only just.
