Beautiful Castlehyde abandoned church and graveyard

Intro music courtesy of Jory Nash
www.Jorynash.com

https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/bui...
Freestanding Board of First Fruits-style former Church of Ireland church, dated 1809, remodelled c. 1830, now disused. Comprising four-bay nave with three-stage tower to west, having slightly projecting gabled entrance bay flanked by porches with gables to front and side elevations. Pitched slate roofs, tower having square-plan bottom stage, octagonal-plan drum with corbel table, crenellations and spire. Roughcast rendered walls to nave, having cut limestone buttresses flanking eastern three bays. Cut sandstone walls to porches, with carved limestone date plaques to north and south gables having heraldic motifs, and having ashlar limestone quoins, plinth courses and carved limestone copings terminating in decorative scrolls and gables surmounted by ornate stepped carved finials. Ashlar limestone to entrance bay with similar detailing to gable. Cut sandstone walls to tower, with string course between stages. West elevation has cut limestone plinth. Pointed arch openings to nave, some blocked up, others with timber Y-tracery windows, all with rendered sills. Square-headed triple-light windows to front elevations of porches, having cut limestone block-and-start surrounds with carved limestone label-mouldings with decorative stops and remains of timber cinquefoil heads, with cast-iron bars. Lancet windows to nolrth and side elevations of porches, having cut limestone block-and-start surrounds with carved limestone hood-mouldings and remains of decorative timber tracery comprising double-light over single cinquefoil light. Quatrefoil openings to middle stage of tower, with fixed timber windows. Ogee-headed cut limestone openings to drum, with timber louvers. Ashlar limestone entrance bay comprises recesseddoorway having pointed arch opening with carved limestone hood-moulding having ornate stops. Carved limestone hood-moulding to extenal face of entrance, with decorative carved hood-moulding with decorative stops. Inscribed blind lancets flanking doorway. Carved blind quatrefoil to pediment, set in round frame. Graveyard to site with some elaborate monuments and having roughly dressed sandstone piers to road entrance, with double-leaf wrought-iron vehicular and pedestrian gates, and pointed arch pedestrian entrance towards Castle Hyde, all set to rubble sandstone boundary walls.

Appraisal
This former Church of Ireland church was built by the Hydes of Castle Hyde, and remodelled in the Gothic Revival style by G.R. Pain for John Hyde in the 1830s. The church retains its original, simple form which is enlivened by Pain’s elaborate porches and gabled entrance. The ornate limestone dressings are finely carved and are indicative of the skill of nineteenth-century craftsmen. The use of limestone dressings juxtaposed with sandstone walls, provides a textural and chromatic contrast which further enlivens the façade. The site retains its graveyard, piers and gates and boundary walls which adds context to the site.
#death #cemetery #graveyard