Killaspugbrone

Interior of Killaspugbrone Church

Interior of killaspugbrone Church. Drawn on the spot on the 19th of October 1878 for Colonel Cooper by William Frederick Wakeman. Church 55foot long by 23 foot.Walls 2foot 9inches thick.Window on interior 3 foot 10 inches high; 2 foot 2 inches broad at top, 2foot 5½ inches at bottom.

Copyright Sligo County Library

Interior of Killaspugbrone Church
Copyright Sligo County Library

Interior of Killaspugbrone Church

Interior of killaspugbrone Church. Drawn on the spot on the 19th of October 1878 for Colonel Cooper by William Frederick Wakeman. Church 55foot long by 23 foot.Walls 2foot 9inches thick.Window on interior 3 foot 10 inches high; 2 foot 2 inches broad at top, 2foot 5½ inches at bottom.

Copyright Sligo County Library

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North Western View of Killaspugbrone Church

North Western View of Killaspugbrone Church. Drawn on the spot on October 29th 1878 for Colonel Cooper by William Frederick Wakeman

Copyright Sligo County Library

North Western View of Killaspugbrone Church
Copyright Sligo County Library

North Western View of Killaspugbrone Church

North Western View of Killaspugbrone Church. Drawn on the spot on October 29th 1878 for Colonel Cooper by William Frederick Wakeman

Copyright Sligo County Library

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Killasbugbrone Church

Wakeman visited this medieval church on 29 October 1878 and did two illustrations of it, an interior and this exterior northwestern view.

The church was built between 1150 and 1220 and its internal dimensions measure 15.25m by 5.25m, with the walls being 0.9m thick. The church had a steeply pitched roof evident from the gable end at the east. The west gable is still visible in the masonry of a later medieval tower. The doorway on the south wall is partially collapsed.

The tower and a sedelia (a seat for clergy) were added in the 15th century. The sedelia is an arched area in the north wall near the stone altar beneath the east window. The tower on the west end was originally three stories high. The vaulted room at the base was used for storage with the priest's living room above this and his bedroom on the next storey. This tower made the interior smaller reducing the interior length to 10.35m. The buttresses visible in Wakeman's drawing were added to support the tower after it had been built.

The church survived the Reformation by becoming Protestant, but was abandoned by the late 18th or early 19th century. After its abandonment the vaulted room at the base of the tower was turned into a burial vault and parts of the tower were removed and levelled. Considerable decay to both the interior and exterior has occurred since Wakeman painted it including the collapse of masonry, the growth of ivy and the partial collapse of the sedelia.

Modern - North Western View of Killaspugbrone Church

Modern Image of North Western View of Killaspugbrone Church.

Copyright Sligo County Library

Modern - North Western View of Killaspugbrone Church
Copyright Sligo County Library

Modern - North Western View of Killaspugbrone Church

Modern Image of North Western View of Killaspugbrone Church.

Copyright Sligo County Library

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Killaspugbrone translates as the Church of Bishop Bronus, a son of a local chieftain and companion of St Patrick. A tooth of St Patrick fell out onto a flagstone here and Bronus (who died in 511AD) who retained the tooth founded the church on the spot.

However, there is no evidence of this early foundation and the site became a medieval parish church between 1150 and 1220. The Shrine St Patrick's Tooth (the Fiacal Phadraig, now in the National Museum of Ireland) was made in 1376 for Thomas de Birmingham, Lord of Athenry, who owned the lands of Killaspugbrone and this shrine reputedly held the tooth.

The church was abandoned when it and the village that was around it began to be engulfed in shifting sand dunes.