RAHAN MONASTIC SITE - Offaly County Council

4.0 ASSESSMENT and STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE4.0 ASSESSMENT and STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE4.1 Assessment of SignificanceThe Guidelines to the Burra Charter state that:Cultural Significance is a concept which helps in estimating the value of places. The places that arelikely to be of significance are those which help an understanding of the past or enrich the present,and which will be of value to future generations (see Appendix 1).There are a variety of categories used to evaluate the level of a place’s cultural significance: Archaeological, Historic,Architectural, Aesthetic, Social and Spiritual categories will be used to assess the significance of Rahan.Overall this archaeological complex, with its unique architectural remains together with the undisturbedsub-surface archaeology and large monastic enclosure, identify Rahan to be a place of international culturalsignificance.Archaeological SignificanceThe site has the potential to enlighten future researchers of the monastic movementof Western Europe to discover new ideas and theories which explain the earlyyears of the founding fathers of this great monastery. The conservation andmanagement of the site will ensure that this state of preservation is maintained,thus enabling future generations to enjoy and learn from the monastic remainsat Rahan.The relatively undisturbed monastic enclosure at Rahan is the largest in the countycovering an area greater than the monastic enclosures at Clonmacnoise, Durrow,Seir Kieran and Killeigh. Large enclosures of this type are a characteristic featureof the early monastic settlements founded in County Offaly and the neighbouringmidland regions. The form and size of these large enclosures differentiates thesemonasteries from their counterparts with much smaller enclosing elements.Historical SignificanceThe wealth of surviving documentary evidence relating to the history anddevelopment of the monastic site at Rahan adds to its significance. The continuedoccupation of the site and the development of the buildings relate the changingpolitical and social situations of the time. Records survive relating to thefoundation of the monastery in the fifth century.The wealth of historical information relating to the site adds to its importanceand the nineteenth and twentieth century drawings and photographs recordingthe building, enhances our understanding of what survives today and what wasoriginally constructed.Plate 46. Engaged columns of Romanesquechancel arch.Architectural SignificanceThis Church of St Carthage has been described as - perhaps the most unusualIrish Romanesque building outside of Cormac’s Chapel in terms of its survivingarchitectural features and sculptural details. 55Writing in 1940, Francoise Henry stated that the Church of St Carthage at Rahanwas a building of the greatest interest. 56 She describes the building as possessingtwo - small square sacristies. The very wide chancel arch rests on two carved piers, andfrom the disposition of the walls of the sacristies it appears that the nave was hardlywider than the choir. 57 The ground plan at Rahan has its closest comparisons withchurches from Anglo-Saxon England, the architecture of which had remarkablylittle influence on Ireland (pers. comm. Dr Rachel Moss). There are seven Anglo-Saxon churches in England with a flanking porticus or side-chapel to the northand south of the chancel. 58 They all have a doorway leading from the chancel tothe porticus resulting in a four-cell ground plan similar to that of Rahan. This maysuggest that Rahan was built by masons influenced by the Anglo-Saxon church54