Church at St. John's Point

Bullaun and Holy Spring

The ruins of the pre-Romanesque church at St. John's Point ( Irish Rinn Eoin ) are located in the south of County Down on the Lecale Lower called the east side of the Lecale Peninsula in Northern Ireland ; Approximately 2.5 km from Killough village and 8.4 km from Ardglass . The peninsula is partly a protected landscape area ( English Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty - AONB).

The small stone church near the coast and the lighthouse (not to be confused with St. John's Point of the same name in County Donegal ) dates to the 10th or 11th century. Presumably it is the remainder of a monastery that goes back to "Eoan (John) Son of Cairland". The floor plan is about 6 m × 4 m, the walls are 70 cm thick. The building stands on a rough foundation and has short anteens on both ends extending into the gable . It seems to be modeled on a wooden structure. The western gable wall is still up to a height of 5.5 m and the two side walls up to a height of three meters. The pre-Romanesque church with its straight, double lintel has a small rectangular window on the south side.

A long stone box, which was partly under the wall and the rest under the church, contained the remains of 16 people. Two more boxes were discovered in an outer trench. The orientation of the burials towards the church was unusual, so that an older burial ground must have existed at this point before the stone church was built. On the other hand, many of the internal church burials are oriented east-west and correspond to the orientation of the church, so that they are to be regarded as Christian.

Nearby is a St. Cooey's Holy Well a holy spring with a porthole and the stone circle of Ballynoe , which encloses a Langcairn .

literature

Monitoring Report No. 02 des: Center for Archaeological Fieldwork, School of Archeology and Palaeoecology, Queens University Belfast, May 2004

Individual evidence

↑ According to Irish nomenclature, the priods: * early Christian 500–1200 * Medieval 1170–1350 * Late medieval 1350–1600 * romanesque 1130–1200 * Transitional 1200–1250 * Gothic 1250–1600 are distinguished

Web links

Commons : St John's Point Church - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

54.226666666667 -5.6583333333333Coordinates: 54 ° 13 ′ 36 ″ N , 5 ° 39 ′ 30 ″ W.

[1] According to Irish nomenclature, the priods: * early Christian 500–1200 * Medieval 1170–1350 * Late medieval 1350–1600 * romanesque 1130–1200 * Transitional 1200–1250 * Gothic 1250–1600 are distinguished