Tullaghmelan Church (in ruins), Tullaghmelan, Co. Tipperary

Co. Tipperary |

Churches & Chapels

Tullaghmelan Church (in ruins), Tullaghmelan, Co. Tipperary

At the apex of the south doorway of this ruined Tipperary church, a carved stone face peers out from centuries of weathering.

The figure is identified as a bishop, complete with mitre, and tradition recorded in the Ordnance Survey Letters holds that it represents Maolan, a bishop whose feast falls on 25 December. The face is egg-shaped with a long neck, pronounced ears, and almond-shaped eyes; the nose and mouth have worn away almost entirely. It is an unusual survival, a piece of ecclesiastical portraiture worked into the fabric of the building's entrance, and one that connects the fabric of the ruin to a specific named figure from early Irish Christian tradition.

The church itself sits on a gentle natural rise within an active graveyard, centrally placed and approached from a road along the south side. It is a substantial rectangular structure, measuring roughly 21 metres east to west and just under 10 metres north to south, with walls of limestone and sandstone rubble built to a thickness of around 1.3 to 1.4 metres. The south wall carries a slight base-batter, a deliberate outward lean at the base designed to add stability, and the doorway there is pointed and topped with a hood-moulding. An opposing doorway in the north wall has fared less well; only the lower jamb on the east side survives, and the voussoirs, the wedge-shaped stones forming the arch above, are in a precarious state. The west gable, standing to around 6 metres, is the best-preserved section and retains a fine ogee-headed single-light window, its curved and pointed arch still intact above the current ground level. The east gable has largely collapsed, the east window is broken out, and the remaining walls are heavily clad in ivy. Ground levels both inside and outside the church appear to have risen over time, quietly burying the lower courses of what was once a well-built medieval structure.

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