RAHAN MONASTIC SITE - Offaly County Council

1.0 INTRODUCTION1.0 INTRODUCTION1.1 The SiteThe monastic site of Rahan lies in flat pasture land on the south bank of the Clodiagh River, seven miles west ofTullamore, on the road from Rahan to Killina. The Grand Canal passes to the south of the site. In the fifth centuryCamelacus was appointed by Patrick to establish a monastery at Rahan, later re-founded by St Carthage in thesixth century. The monastery is contained within a large D-shaped enclosure with the Clodiagh River forming thestraight section on its northern side. The monastic enclosure originally consisted of two earthen banks with anintervening fosse as described by local antiquarian Thomas Stanley in 1870. 2 Today the outer enclosing elementsurvives largely intact as an earthen bank with an external fosse or ditch, the form of which is still preserved inthe field boundaries to the east, south and west of the churches. The inner bank and intervening fosse have beendegraded over the centuries but are still visible as low earth works to the east of the smaller church. The outlineof a section of levelled enclosure can still be seen in the field to the south-east of the Bridge House. It is possiblethat the river may at one time have been diverted to supply water to the fosse, to form a moat around the earlyChristian monastery of Rahan. There are two churches inside the enclosure, of which the largest, dedicated toSt Carthage, is still used as a place of worship by the Church of Ireland community. The second church survivesas a ruin in the care of the Office of Public Works. This ruinous building is located to the east of the Church ofSt Carthage. A smaller ruin, also in the care of the OPW, contained a sheela-na-gig and may have been a towerhouse, stands to the south of the Church of St Carthage in the graveyard used by the local Catholic community.This latter structure is shown on some maps as a church, but its size, ground plan and barrel-vaulted roof suggeststhat it was a tower house rather than a place of worship. The levelled wall footings of a possible third church weredescribed by Father Carthage, a Cistercian monk from Mount Melleray Abbey, Co. Waterford as being located closeto the small church at Rahan. 3 An ancient graveyard, no longer in use, lies to the south and east of the Churchof St Carthage.1.2 Background and ApproachIn 1988 Rahan monastic site was listed in the Sites and Monuments Record of County Offaly published by the Officeof Public Works. In 1995 this site was given statutory protection under Section 12 of the National Monument(Amendment) Act 1994 when the Record of Monuments and Places for County Offaly was published by the OPW. In2002, having identified the importance of its monastic heritage, Offaly Heritage Forum commissioned a report onthe care and condition of all the early monastic sites contained within the county. This was completed by CaiminO’Brien in 2003 under the title Condition and Management Report on the Early Christian Monasteries of County Offaly.The report highlighted twenty-three significant monastic sites, dating from the Early Christian period, that hadbeen established in the county. Rahan had already been well documented previously, but the report highlightedits importance and the need for further action. In the same year, the Church of Ireland requested assistance fromthe Heritage Council, and they commissioned Desmond Fitzgerald Architects to prepare a conservation report.Subsequently, a conservation plan was prepared for the monastic site at Lemanaghan, which has proved to be avaluable tool in the management and conservation of this important site. In recognising the constructive role aconservation plan can play in managing a site of different and sometimes complex ownerships and interests, it wasconsidered appropriate to commission a conservation plan to provide similar guidance to the various guardiansof the monastic site at Rahan.Figure 3.OrdnanceSurvey Map6-inch map(1838).14