Overview
A roofless medieval parish church and its square three-stage tower stand in a working graveyard on the edge of Carrickmacross, on Magheross Road a few minutes’ walk from the town centre in County Monaghan. It is a small stop – ten or fifteen minutes – best taken as part of the town’s heritage trail rather than a trip of its own. The payoff for the detour is on the wall: a plaque that records, in plain terms, that the church ‘was ruined in the Rebellion of 1641 and rebuilt in the year 1682’.
History
The Buildings of Ireland survey dates the first church here to about 1550, a pre-Reformation parish church that passed to the Church of Ireland after the Reformation. Local tradition puts something older on the spot again: it is still called Old St Finbarr’s, and the graveyard St Finbarr’s cemetery, after a story that the saint founded a church here. In the wars of the 1590s English forces held the building as a garrison, and the MacMahons of Farney – the Gaelic clan that ran this corner of Monaghan – burned them out. It was ruined again in the 1641 rebellion, then rebuilt in 1682 with the square tower to the north. In 1788 the parish vestry decided to build a new church on Carrickmacross’s main street; the congregation moved there, and Magheross was left to the weather.
What to look for
- The skull-and-crossbones headstone. The one carving people remember is a weathered memento mori that reads more pirate than parish – worth hunting down among the older stones.
- The tower. Rubble limestone with tooled string courses and dressed-stone quoins; the way in is through the north wall.
- The gate piers. Square late-17th-century ashlar piers with blocked cornices and ball finials, now hung with replacement metal gates.
- The graveyard. Still in use, with a mix of Catholic and Church of Ireland burials.
Practical
The church is on Magheross Road just outside the centre; the easiest approach is to park in Carrickmacross and walk the few minutes out. There is no ticket office and no set hours – it is an open graveyard. Watch your footing on the uneven ground near the ruin, keep off the loose stonework, and treat the burials with the respect a working graveyard deserves.
The town trail
Magheross is one stop on the self-guided Carrickmacross Historic Town Trail, a 35 to 40 minute walk that links it to St Joseph’s Church, the Church of Ireland St Finbarr’s, the Famine graveyard, and the old courthouse and toll house. Heading back into town, the Carrickmacross Lace Gallery shows the fine bobbin lace the town is known for, and the Carrickmacross Workhouse gives a sobering look at the Famine years. For more regional history, the Monaghan County Museum in Monaghan town is a longer hop north. Give the church fifteen minutes on your way round the trail, and make finding the skull-and-crossbones stone the thing you come away with.