Doora Church
| Doora Church | |
|---|---|
| St Brecan's | |
 Doora Church
|
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| 52°50′25″N 8°57′38″W / 52.840324°N 8.960577°WCoordinates: 52°50′25″N 8°57′38″W / 52.840324°N 8.960577°W | |
| Country | Ireland |
| Denomination | Roman Catholic |
| History | |
| Founded | c. 500 |
| Founder(s) | Saint Brecan |
| Architecture | |
| Status | Ruined |
| Specifications | |
| Materials | Stone |
| Administration | |
| Parish | Doora, County Clare |
Doora Church (Irish: Teampull Dúrain), also known as St Brecan, Doora, is a ruined church in the civil parish of Doora, County Clare, Ireland. It may date back to 500 AD, although it has been extensively reworked since then.
The church may have been founded by Saint Brecan around 500 AD. If Brecan was the founder, as tradition states, it would have been one of the first central mission churches in Clare. It is mentioned in 1189. At this time the church, which is near Kilbrecan, was called Durinierekin. Brecan also founded what is now called Carntemple about 2 miles (3.2 km) to the east of Doora Church. An 1842 map notes that the church was in ruins and shows it about 200 metres (660 ft) southwest of what was then the hamlet of Doora, which lay in the west of the townland of Ballaghboy in the parish of Doora. The church itself lies in the townland of Bunnow. It is about 300 metres (980 ft) east of the River Fergus, opposite the town of Ennis.
According to John O'Donovan and Eugene O'Curry, writing in 1839:
The old Church of Dúiré is situated in the middle of a bog, about one mile to the south east of the Abbey of Ennis. It is a Church of considerable antiquity and was remodelled at an early period. It measures on the inside fifty nine feet in length and twenty three feet eight inches in breadth. The west gable, which was not of the original work, is all destroyed with the exception of two fragments attached to the two walls; the fragment at the south west corner six feet in length and about seventeen feet in height, and that at the north west corner three feet in length and of the same height with the north wall. At the distance of thirteen feet three inches of the west gable the south wall contains a doorway now reduced on the outside to a formless breach; on the inside it is also very much injured, but it can be ascertained from what remains of it that it was seven feet four inches in height to the springing of the arch and four feet ten inches in width. There is a stone projecting from the wall on the outside over this doorway with the head of some animal rudely shaped on it.
At the distance of thirteen feet seven inches to the east of this doorway there is in the same wall a very ancient window, round-headed inside and outside. On the inside it is five feet three inches from the present level of the ground, eight feet high and five feet in width, and on the outside four feet in height and in breadth (width) five inches at top and seven and a half inches at the bottom. At the distance of eleven feet eight inches to the east of this window there is another nearly of the same shape, but not so ancient, it having been evidently inserted to match the former when the Church was remodelled. It is placed at the height of five feet from the present level of the ground on the inside, and measures on the inside seven feet seven inches in height and four feet six inches in breadth (width) and on the outside three feet eight inches in height, and in width four and a half inches at top and five and a half inches at the bottom. The former of these windows has a channel and rope (rabbit) on the outside and a representation of the head and breast of a very large dog (evidently the Irish wolf dog) placed at the height of one foot over it; the latter window has not the channel (architrave) or rope (cable moulding) and the only ornament it exhibits is a semicircle raised on the stone which forms its top.
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Wikipedia