Survey Data
Reg No
15400922
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Archaeological, Architectural, Artistic
Original Use
Church/chapel
Date
1500 - 1820
Coordinates
266979, 267833
Date Recorded
29/06/2006
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Fragmentary ruins of a late medieval church built, c.1500, on the site of an earlier church. Altered, c.1810, to act as a folly associated with the Killua Castle (15306023). Constructed of rubble limestone with dressed stone surrounds to the square-headed, ogee-headed and pointed-arched window and door openings. Set in an enclosure/graveyard on an irregular plan and surrounded by collection of grave markers of mainly eighteenth and nineteenth-century date. Located to the southwest of Killua Castle within former demesne grounds.
Appraisal
An interesting and curious structure, which forms a pleasing landmark, of some romantic quality. This site was originally a medieval churchyard. It was altered in the early nineteenth-century to resemble the remains of a medieval Gothic cathedral, serving as a 'sham ruin' or folly associated with the Killua Castle (15306023), one of a number of follies associated with this estate. This folly would have created a picturesque vista, being on an elevated site, and would have been clearly visible from the south and east elevations of Killua Castle. This work was probably carried out by Sir Thomas Chapman, who carried out extensive works on the Killua Castle estate in the early nineteenth-century. The graveyard containing a number of grave markers, some very finely carved, of the Chapman Family of Killua Castle (15306023), the earliest of which is of early eighteenth-century date. This feature should be viewed as being important part of an eighteenth and nineteenth century demesne landscape as well as being a site of archaeological importance.