Old Catholic Church, Cor An Dola, Co. Galway
Co. Galway |
Churches & Chapels
On the western edge of Corrandulla village in County Galway, a graveyard holds the remains of a Catholic church so reduced by time that it barely registers as a building at all.
What survives is a west gable, a north side-wall, and a very short fragment of the south side-wall, the rest long since collapsed or carried away. No carved details, no window surrounds, no doorway features remain to help date it or tell you much about whoever built it.
The footprint, where it can be read, describes a rectangular structure aligned roughly east to west, the standard orientation for a Christian church, placing the altar end toward the rising sun. It measured approximately 15.4 metres in length and 6.8 metres in width, dimensions that suggest a modest but functional building rather than anything elaborate. Without surviving architectural features, pinning down a precise period is difficult, and the record offers no founding date or associated historical names. What is clear is that it served a Catholic community, stood within a burial ground that presumably continued in use even as the church itself fell into ruin, and now exists more as an outline than a structure.