Neighbors to the Vikings

AI informed me that there is a ruined medieval church at Cloney Graveyard in Kildare that had lost nearly all of its walls, leaving only a solitary stone doorway standing upright.

Further search told me that the doorway was a ‘Two-centred arch, formed from two stones curving to meet at a gentle point in a form commonly associated with Gothic ecclesiastical building in Ireland. Its survival here is quite remarkable given how little of the surrounding structure remains.’

I went to see it before it too disappeared. I was too late.  

First I had to find the place. Some locals had never heard of it but two farmers who knew gave me instructions to turn left, then right, then left. That did not help.  One of them saw me still searching and led me to the place.  Part of the problem was that it was inside a farmyard.

Those who had seen it before me noted a curious D-shaped enclosure, typical of early Irish monasteries and indicating it once was more than a graveyard. All that remained for me to see was a raised area with graves, some recently tended. There was also a plastic chair where you could sit and wonder where the arch had been.  

The first to live there was Baodan, a Kerry man with links to early monastic foundations in Wicklow, Glendalough and Dublin. He was one of the early pioneers, setting up communities in rural Leinster.  The Annals note that he died in the presence of St Cronan of Roscrea at Lusmagh around 630.

A church obviously survived at Cloney (until recently) despite the presence of Vikings in the neighbourhood. In 837 the Vikings started moving up the rivers of Ireland and the Barrow (Ireland’s second longest river) proved a convenient passageway into the island’s heartland.  

To extend their raiding season they built Longport bases from 844 and one of the few inland examples is at Dunrally on the Barrow just beside Cloney.  In 860 the Longport was destroyed by Dinnediadh, the local Irish King, but Viking raids on the river continued into the following century. 

We do not know how Coney managed to survive or why it was finally abandoned.  A grave marker there dates from the 18th century. It seems the arched doorway had survived until recently.

Does anyone know why Cloney arch suddenly disappeared?

In its heyday, and even in its ruined state, it was a doorway into what makes us who we are today.