Sheepstown Church is a medieval church and
National Monument
A national monument is a monument constructed in order to commemorate something of importance to national heritage, such as a country's founding, independence, war, or the life and death of a historical figure. The term may also refer to a sp ...
in
County Kilkenny
County Kilkenny () is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster and is part of the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. It is named after the City status in Ir ...
,
Ireland
Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
.
Location
Sheepstown Church is located west of
Knocktopher
Knocktopher (historically ''Knocktofer'' and ''Knocktover''; ) is a village in County Kilkenny, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is situated on the R713 road (Ireland), R713 road between the villages of Stoneyford, County Kilkenny, Stoneyford t ...
, immediately west of Junction 10 of the
M9.
History
The church at Sheepstown is dedicated to St
Muicín, bishop and confessor (d. 630). The stone church was built during the 12th or 13th century, at a period when the Irish church was moving from a monastic to a diocesan setup.
Church
The church is
Hiberno-Romanesque and simple in design. The west doorway has simple
bead moulding, as do the four corners of the gables. The door in the south may have led to the
sacristy
A sacristy, also known as a vestry or preparation room, is a room in Christianity, Christian churches for the keeping of vestments (such as the alb and chasuble) and other church furnishings, sacred vessels, and parish records.
The sacristy is us ...
. High in the northwest corner is a
corbel
In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal keyed into and projecting from a wall to carry a wikt:superincumbent, bearing weight, a type of bracket (architecture), bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in t ...
called the "clock-stone", perhaps the
gnomon
A gnomon (; ) is the part of a sundial that casts a shadow. The term is used for a variety of purposes in mathematics and other fields, typically to measure directions, position, or time.
History
A painted stick dating from 2300 BC that was ...
of a
sundial
A sundial is a horology, horological device that tells the time of day (referred to as civil time in modern usage) when direct sunlight shines by the position of the Sun, apparent position of the Sun in the sky. In the narrowest sense of the ...
.
References
{{Reflist
Former churches in County Kilkenny
Archaeological sites in County Kilkenny
National monuments in County Kilkenny