Cloyne Cathedral: A Medieval Church of Ireland Cathedral in Ireland
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Ireland
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- British, English
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Cathedral
On this page10 sections
History
Cloyne Cathedral is a Church of Ireland cathedral in Cloyne, Ireland, whose present building was erected between about 1250 and the 1270s in the Gothic period. It developed on the site of a monastic settlement and school founded in 560 by Colmán of Cloyne, an early Irish Christian religious figure. The land was donated by Coirpre Cromm mac Crimthainn, King of Munster. The foundation gave Cloyne a long religious history before the medieval cathedral took shape.
Monastery and Diocese
The monastery was plundered by Vikings in 822, 824, and 885. During the raid of 885, the abbot, prior, and several others were killed. Cloyne then disappears from the monastic annals until 1060. The foundation of the diocese is dated to 887, while its formal recognition came at the Synod of Kells in 1152, a twelfth-century church council that reorganized the Irish church and confirmed diocesan structures. Bishop Nehemias of Cloyne died in 1149, during the period in which the diocese was being established.
Medieval Cathedral and Religious Change
Several churches occupied the site before the present cathedral was built. Its medieval form retained a cruciform arrangement, with a nave, transepts, and choir. Following the Reformation, the cathedral became part of the Church of Ireland, the Anglican church in Ireland and part of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Roman Catholics transferred the diocesan seat to Cobh, where construction of St. Colman’s Cathedral began in 1868 and continued into the twentieth century.
Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Alterations
The cathedral was damaged during the 1641 Rebellion, a revolt in Ireland that led to widespread conflict, and repairs were completed in 1642. Further substantial work was carried out on the choir during the seventeenth century. In 1705, the chapter house was repaired and the choir enlarged. The building was reroofed in either 1705 or 1706, and the nave battlements were removed; the new roof was restored in 1733. The Great Arch at the choir entrance was removed in 1774, followed by the removal of the choir’s cross wall in 1776.
A severe hurricane on Shrove Tuesday in 1781 blew down the north side of the churchyard wall and shattered 88 panes of glass. Slaters repaired the roof over 11 days, using 1,200 slates. These interventions and repairs altered the medieval building while preserving its continuing use as a cathedral church.
Later Anglican History and Restoration
Cloyne remained the cathedral church of the Bishopric of Cloyne until 1835, when the diocese was united with Cork. The Anglican diocese later became part of the united Diocese of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, for which Cloyne Cathedral remains one of three cathedrals. George Berkeley was Bishop of Cloyne from 1734 to 1753. John Brinkley, an Anglican bishop and astronomer, held the office from 1826 until his death in 1835 and was the last bishop to reside in Cloyne.
New choir windows were installed in 1856, and the choir was substantially renovated in the 1890s. The work included a new ceiling and choir stalls, the removal of a gallery from the western wall, and the relocation of the organ. Arthur Hill prepared the renovation plans, which were paid for by an anonymous donor from India. The work may have taken place between 1891 and 1894 or in 1911. Cloyne Cathedral is a protected structure, listed as Protected Structure No. 00587.
Remains
Cathedral Plan and Gothic Features
The cathedral retains the core of its original thirteenth-century cruciform plan. Its main elements are the nave, the central space of the church, the transepts or crossing arms, the choir, the chapter house, and the churchyard enclosure. The south-transept arched windows are examples of Early English Gothic, an early phase of Gothic architecture distinguished partly by the forms and tracery of its pointed windows. Other windows belong to the Decorated Gothic phase. Stained glass remains inside, including a window depicting Saint Colmán.
The original cathedral may have had a tower where the transepts crossed. Older references mention such a structure, but the evidence for it remains uncertain. The cathedral’s choir retains the effects of later alterations, including the enlargement of the area in 1705, the removal of the Great Arch in 1774, the removal of the cross wall in 1776, and the nineteenth-century changes to its ceiling, stalls, gallery, and organ.
Chapter House and Churchyard Buildings
The chapter house, a room used by members of a cathedral or monastic community for meetings, forms part of the cathedral complex. It was repaired in 1705. Another building on the grounds, known as the Fire House, may have been an oratory. It may alternatively have been used by a female religious order to keep a fire continuously burning.
Cloyne Round Tower
Cloyne Round Tower stands across the road from the cathedral. It dates from either the tenth or eleventh century and is a tall, cylindrical medieval Irish stone tower. The monks used it as the cathedral’s bell tower, and it returned to that function from 1683. Lightning struck the tower in 1749.
Burials and Memorials
When the choir’s cross wall was removed in 1776, a row of graves was found beneath the church foundation. The graves contained brick coffins shaped to the bodies within them. Mary Smyth, who died in 1675, was buried beneath the nave floor. A horseshoe carved into the ground marks the burial place, while local superstition calls it the “devil’s footprint” and identifies it as a footprint left by Satan.
A memorial to John Brinkley in the nave includes a globe, a telescope, and a Bible. These objects reflect his work as an astronomer and his position as a bishop, linking the cathedral’s later memorial landscape with the career of one of its former diocesan leaders.
