Saint Patrick's Church, also called Old Straffan Church, is a ruined medieval church in Straffan, Ireland.

Location

St. Patrick's Church is located in the centre of Straffan village, 760 m (½ mile) north of the

River Liffey The River Liffey (Irish language, Irish: ''An Life'', historically ''An Ruirthe(a)ch'') is a river in eastern Ireland that ultimately flows through the centre of Dublin to its mouth within Dublin Bay. Its major Tributary, tributaries include t ...

History

St. Patrick’s Church, Straffan was built in the early 13th century. It is recorded that St Patrick's was incorporated into the Hospital of Saint John outside Newgate, Dublin c. 1250 which would suggest its construction at an earlier time. The

vicarage A clergy house is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or Minister (Christianity), ministers of a given religion, serving as both a home and a base for the occupant's ministry. Residences of this type can have a variety of n ...

was suppressed in 1397 and was united with Saint John’s Hospital. In 1531 Archbishop

John Alen John Alen (1476 – 28 July 1534) was an English priest and canon lawyer, whose later years were spent in Ireland. He held office as Archbishop of Dublin and Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and was a member of the Privy Council of Ireland. In the l ...

restored the vicarage. The church may have served as a safe house for persecuted clergy. The

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

was ruined by 1630. The church was replaced by the modern church in 1838. The church is located within a modern graveyard, accessible by a

lychgate A lychgate (from Old English ''līc'', corpse) or resurrection gate is a covered gateway found at the entrance to a traditional English or English-style churchyard. Examples also exist outside the British Isles in places such as Newfoundland, the ...

, built c. 1920.

Building

St. Patrick's Church is long, with a fortified

tower house A tower house is a particular type of stone structure, built for defensive purposes as well as habitation. Tower houses began to appear in the Middle Ages, especially in mountainous or limited access areas, to command and defend strategic points ...

of four storeys attached to its west end, with a

bell-cote A bellcote, bell-cote or bell-cot is a small framework and shelter for one or more bells. Bellcotes are most common in church architecture but are also seen on institutions such as schools. The bellcote may be carried on brackets projecting from ...

on top. The tower has a stair-turret in the southwest and has had later

buttresses A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient (typically Gothic) buildings, as a means of providing support to act a ...

added to the north and south. The entrance door is to the south with a modern

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

arch; otherwise the church is of rubble with

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

dressings. There are three cusped,

ogee An ogee ( ) is an object, element, or curve—often seen in architecture and building trades—that has a serpentine- or extended S-shape (Sigmoid curve, sigmoid). Ogees consist of a "double curve", the combination of two semicircle, semicircula ...

-headed and chamfered single-

light Light, visible light, or visible radiation is electromagnetic radiation that can be visual perception, perceived by the human eye. Visible light spans the visible spectrum and is usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400– ...

windows — two in the south and one in the north. There are roughly-dressed

quoins Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th-century encyclopedia, ...

on the east wall. Most of the northern wall has fallen. A 19th-century account mentions a small stone oratory to the south, which has since been demolished.

Gallery

File:Straffan ogee window 2.jpg, East window File:Ogee window in Straffan old church.jpg, West window File:Straffan Old Church.jpg, north wall of the church; postholes where wooden steps allowed access to the tower are visible. File:Straffan old church 2.jpg, View of fortified tower from the south

References

{{Reflist Archaeological sites in County Kildare Former churches in the Republic of Ireland Churches in County Kildare