RAHAN MONASTIC SITE - Offaly County Council

APPENDICESDescriptions of the Circular WindowThe motifs used on the circular window bear a remarkable resemblance to the decoration on the west doorwayand chancel arch of the Nun’s Church at Clonmacnoise, suggesting that it is perhaps a product of the same schoolof masons. On the inner face of the quatrefoil openings there are interlaced animals carved in a typical Hiberno-Scandinavian style.1845 PetrieThis window was described in 1845 by Petrie as the:. . . remarkable round window already referred to, and which seems to me to be not only the mostcurious of its kind remaining in the British Isles, but also, I have little doubt, the most ancient.As the details of this window will be sufficiently seen in the illustration given on next page, it isonly necessary to remark, that the ornaments are in very low relief, or, as I might say, inciso, or inhollow; and that it measures about seven feet six inches in the external diameter of the circle, andis placed at the height of about twenty-two feet from the ground. I should add, that the masonrythroughout this interesting building is of a very superior character, the stones, which are polygonal,being fitted to each other with the greatest neatness and art, and that the material is the celebratedlimestone of the district. 80 1878 StokesFigure 37. Decorative detail of Romanesque roundwindow (Earl of Dunraven 1877).In her book Early Christian Architecture in Ireland, Stokes described the decorativepatterns on the Romanesque circular window as:‘Then, as in the windows of Annadown and Rahen, borders of chevron,bead, and even foliate patterns are carved in very low relief, as exquisitelyfelt in their treatment as they are gracefully conceived. Some mouldingswhich very rarely occur in England and France are more common in Irelandsuch as the battlement, which is also found at Iffley, and the interruptedchevron, which occurs in the church of Grand Maladrerie, near Caen. Theoccurrence in Ireland of such mouldings as are common to Romanesquearchitecture in other parts of Western Europe does not deprive herarchitecture of any of its archaic and national character.’ 811938 LeaskIn 1938 Leask suggested that the circular window was:too elaborate for the small upper apartment which existed in the roof. I think that it was in the gableof the church originally and was put in its present position in the thirteenth or fifteenth centuries,probably the former. 82In 1955 Leask suggested that this window dated from phase two of the Romanesque period and was thereforeof later date than the chancel arch. He described the circular window in considerable detail stating that thesetypes of windows, which were:. . . forerunners of the elaborate roses of the Gothic style, are not of very common occurrence in theRomanesque of north-western Europe, and are still rarer in Britain. Ireland has but one Romanesqueexample that set high in the eastern gable of the larger church at Rahan. It gives a little light tothe upper part of the vault over the chancel what was the croft in the original building but it seemsaltogether too grand a feature for this quite minor purpose. Moreover, the appearance of thesurrounding rough walling and the manner in which some of the wrought stones have moved out ofposition are indications of a rebuilding. The conjecture that it was originally a feature of the westgable of the nave a position more probable than the present one seems not unwarranted. This partof the church was rebuilt on the old foundations in the eighteenth century, the period to which there-roofing of the chancel at its present low pitch may also be assigned. The round window measures,80