banagher old church

Banagher is said to have been founded by Muiredagh O'Heney, a saint of unknown date associated with a well-known local family. The church is scarcely any earlier then 12th century, with inclining jambs, a massive lintel on the exterior doorway and an arch within. The date 474 was carved on the doorway in the 18th century!

In the earlier 13th century, a chancel was added to the east end, and the east wall fo the original church was replaced by a chancel arch.

To the south-east of the church is a house-shaped gabled 'mortuary house', of the 12th or early 13th century, bearing the figure of a bishop or abbot on the west gable-likely to represent the founder, whose reliquary-tomb this was. It must have acted as a focal point for medieval pilgrims who would have come to venerate the O'Heney saint, and sand is still taken from it to protect the members of his family.<