Islands of Ireland: Success… I managed to find the tiny church on Parsons Island
The map didn’t lie. There it was in black and white. On a three-acre island on a small lake just over the border from County Clare was the target of this week’s adventure: A ruined church whose origins, like many others scattered on remote islands around the country, were apparently lost in the mists of time. Some of these churches were devoted to well-known saints (Colm Cille, Finian) while the dedications to others in the saint firmament were less known, or not known at all.
The lake in question is Lough Cutra, one of many lakes in the limestone escarpments of southern Galway and east Clare. And many of them have islands lurking among the occasionally homogenous landscape: duly noted for the kayaking diary. A historic passage described the lough as being “well-wooded islands, with an abundance of pike, trout, perch, and eels”.
Lough Cutra is a slender 3km-long lake nearly fully surrounded by dense woods. It has 10 islands which are, in decreasing order of size: Castle Island; Beagh Island; Parsons Island; Ricks Island; Apple Island; Keaghery Island; Sally Island; Swan Island; Hawthorn Island; and Holly Island. At least four of the islands have historic or pre-historic monuments or artefacts testifying to the rich archaeology of the area which has seen human settlement for thousands of years. Beagh Island has “a single print regarded as the footprint of a saint situated on a rock close to a holy well on the shoreline of the island”.
It is a short trip on the kayak to the shore of Parsons Island, though not without its perils as some fiercesome-looking jagged black rocks lie just beneath the surface. According to the Ordnance Survey maps (four versions) the church is nearly at the dead centre of the island. Whether this was intentional or not is a moot point though the shoreline of the island was also prone to flooding which may have influenced the decision to site it there.
However, this is a densely-wooded island and finding the church ruin proves no mean feat. Becoming disorientated in a wood is notoriously easy — even as one as small as three acres. Reference points are few and far between as almost everything looks the same. After half an hour of pushing through foliage the eye finally picks up the outline of a limestone block. Sure enough… the rest of the church comes into view on closer inspection. As the map suggests, it is minute: just a mere eight metres by three metres with one wall missing. The stone is undecorated, implying a rudimentary cell was the intention, perhaps an anchorite’s cell as discovered on Hermit’s Island in Lough Key, County Roscommon.
The description on archaeology.ie states it is “a simple rectangular church … built of semi-Cyclopean masonry. No architectural features are visible”.
The Homeric allusion refers to the architectural style where huge blocks of limestone or other rock is used in construction but without mortar.
Lough Cutra or Loch Cútra in Irish, is named after a Firbolg who mythically did battle with another ancient tribe, the Tuatha Dé Danann. The island is named Oileán an Phearsúin in Irish though whether this is a Gaelicisation of Parsons Island or the process was the other way around, is unclear. The placename occurs elsewhere in Parsonstown, County Meath, Carraig an Phearsúin, County Limerick, and Lissapharson, County Kildare. The name Mac an Phearsúin, son of the parson, or MacPherson, is also derived from the profession.
As the island’s name suggests, its ecclesiastical origins were Protestant and the church is connected to Lough Cutra castle which has a long history itself. The Gothic castle was designed by the famous architect John Nash in the late 18th century. Mitchelstown Castle and Regents Park Crescent in London were also his work, According to the castle’s website: “The immediate grounds of the 600-acre estate are rich in remnants of churches, cells and monasteries due to the introduction of Christianity. A number of the islands on the lake contain the remnants of stone altars”.
: The lake, southeast of Gort, is privately owned by the owners of Lough Cutra castle on the western side.
, Elizabeth FitzPatrick
