County: Cork Site name: MOURNEABBEY
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 42:44(01) Licence number: 01E0098 ext.
Author: Eamonn Cotter
Site type: Church
Period/Dating: Medieval (AD 400-AD 1600)
ITM: E 557082m, N 592058m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.078797, -8.626126
Limited excavation was carried out at the Knights Hospitaller church of Mourneabbey in September 2002 before conservation by Cork County Council. The church was cruciform in plan, consisting of a nave, a chancel and two transepts. Both transepts and the eastern half of the chancel have collapsed. In 2001 excavation had been carried out in the external angle formed by the southern wall of the nave and the western wall of the south transept (Excavations 2001, No. 224). At this point the transept wall did not survive above ground level, and the nave wall was leaning outward and required consolidation.
The present excavation comprised the extension of that trench to 6m westward from the angle along the nave wall and 3m southward along the transept wall. The foundations of the transept wall were found to continue for the full length of the trench and beyond. However, the western face of the wall was missing, and there were two gaps where burials had cut through the foundations from the west. The east face survived to a height of c. 0.65m. At 5.4m west of the angle the foundation courses of a poorly constructed, 0.45m-thick wall ran southward from the nave wall. This wall was built on rubble and was clearly later than the church. Its full extent is unknown.
Ballynanelagh, Rathcormac, Co. Cork
