Survey Data

Reg No

30410340


Rating

Regional


Categories of Special Interest

Archaeological, Architectural, Artistic, Historical


Previous Name

Newtown Church


Original Use

Mausoleum


In Use As

Mausoleum


Date

1825 - 1835


Coordinates

139582, 216832


Date Recorded

04/09/2009


Date Updated

--/--/--


Description

Gothic Revival single-cell mausoleum, dated 1830, incorporated into ruins of medieval Drumacoo Church (built c.1250). Presents mainly blank front (east) wall. Recent pitched slate roof at lower level than previous roof, having crenellations and pinnacles. Tooled cut-stone walls with tooled stone pilaster buttresses. Moulded limestone date plaque over entrance. Pointed arch window opening to west gable having tooled stone surround and cast-iron Y-tracery. Pointed-arch door opening having carved chamfered stone surround with colonettes continuing to moulding to archivolt, carved lintel, sheet metal door and tympanum with arcaded panels to door and Y-tracery to tympanum. Set within graveyard and bounded by stone walls.

Appraisal

Incorporated into the ruins of Drumacoo Church, on the site of an early monastic settlement, this Gothic inspired mausoleum was built for the Lady Harriet St George by her husband Arthur F. St George, the occupants of Tyrone House and Kilcolgan Castle. The mausoleum is referred to by the English poet laureate John Betjeman (1906-84) in his poem 'Ireland with Emily'. "There in pinnacled protection/One extinguished family waits/A Church of Ireland resurrection/By the broken, rusty gates./Sheepswool, straw and droppings cover,/Graves of spinster, rake and lover,/Whose fantastic mausoleum,/sings its own seablown Te Deum,/In and out the slipping slates."