County Louth Archaeological and History Society

The Chantry College, ArdeeAuthor(s): John BradleySource: Journal of the County Louth Archaeological and Historical Society, Vol. 22, No. 1(1989), pp. 16-19Published by: County Louth Archaeological and History SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27729670 .

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The Chantry College, Ardee

By John Bradley

In 1984 a brief description of this building was published together with a ground plan.1

Following on the publication I was contacted by Mr Bernard Markey of Ardee who was

anxious to ensure that the remains, which stood in a dilapidated state, would be preserved. At

his instigation a detailed survey of the building was carried out and this revealed that a number

of statements and conclusions arrived at in the earlier paper were inaccurate. The purpose of

this note is to provide a fuller description of the building and to publish an accurate plan.

Description: The surviving structure is merely one segment of a larger building, probably of oblong plan, with its long axis aligned north-south. The surviving portion consists of the

southern end which contained the residential apartments of the college. The missing section

would have contained the common rooms and kitchen in the manner known from the surviving

building at Howth, Co Dublin.2 The roof-flashing of this section survives in the external north

wall. It is clear from this that the building had both a ground-floor cellar and a first-floor hall.

The line of the flashing shows that there was a wall-walk at parapet level and accordingly it is

likely that this section of the building had battlements. The jamb and arch of a fireplace survive in the centre of the wall at first-floor level and above it the wall has collapsed along the

line of the chimney flue.

In plan the surviving remains resemble a parallelogram more than a rectangle. The

structure has external measurements of 8.2 by 6.78m. High pointed gables are present on the

east and west sides and more of the east gable (standing to a height of 9.6m) survives than its

western counterpart which is 9m high. The side walls stand to an almost uniform height of 7m.

The masonry consists of roughly-coursed rubble with limestone quoins. The building had three floors with an attic above. On the north external face a clear break

is visible between the north wall and the east and west walls. This extends to parapet level

where it gives way to bonded construction. This feature led me to conclude in the 1984 paper that the north wall was an insertion but since it supports the barrel vault of the ground floor it

clearly must be viewed as an original part of the structure. The break is a constructional

feature and it would seem that after the barrel vault was built, supported on the north and

south walls, then the east and west walls were simply added to it.

The Ground Floor: The original entrance was placed almost midway along the south wall.

The form of the door cannot be distinguished because it has been infilled with modern

masonry but the presence of a square murder hole (blocked about half-way up) indicates that

this was the original door. The ground-floor chamber was lit on the west by a window set in a

wide embrasure with a curved soffit. The form of the window cannot be determined because of

later interference and blocking. In the east wall an opening has been broken through a recess

above which is the chute descending from the gar d?robe on the first floor above. A pointed door in the north wall originally gave access to the common room or cellar. The thickness of

the north wall suggests the presence of a possible mural stair, perhaps entered through the

modern blocking immediately east of the north door and exiting at the recess adjacent to the

spiral staircase on the first floor.

1. J. Bradley, "Ardee: An Archaeological Study", C.L.A.H.J., XX, 4, (1984), pp 267-96, at pp 286-8.

2. H. G. Leask, Irish Churches and Monastic Buildings, iii, (Dundalk, 1960), pp 28-30.

16

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The Chantry College, Ardee 17

NEW C?NCHETE HOCW

7 GROUND LEVEL

JZ. SECOND HOUR LEVEL

-NEW CONCRETE ?LOCK WA.

_V_ FIRST FLOOR LEVEL

_V GROUND FLOOR LEVEL

y GROUND LEVEL

_2 SECOND FLOOR LEVEL

_ 2 FIRST FLOOR LEVEL

NEW CONCRETE FLOOR

||?|l- 2 GROUND FLOOR LEVEL

jt!_ GROUND FLOOR PLAN

fc^isi 15th CENT. V//A MODERN

ARDEE : CHANTRY COLLEGE STONEWORK DRAWN SCHEMATICALLY

Fig. 1. Floor plans and sections of the Chantry College, Ardee.

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18 County Louth Archaeological and Historical Journal

The First Floor: There appears to have been a door in the NE section of the north wall

which is now blocked with masonry of recent origin. This door would have linked up the first

floor chamber with the common room or hall to the north and provided a means of access to it.

The opening in the centre of the north wall has been formed by breaking through from the

fireplace of the hall and it has been enlarged by the collapse of the wall above it. The floor

level has been raised above what it was originally by the insertion of a modern concrete floor.

The chamber was lit by windows in the south and west walls. The splaying jambs of the west

window are present. There were two windows in the south wall as indicated by the jambs of an

embrasure at the western end and by the east splay of a window positioned almost centrally in

the wall. This latter window was remodelled and enlarged in the eighteenth and nineteenth

centuries. The opening in the east wall seems to have been a recess originally. North of it is a

garderobe with a small cupboard above it. The garderobe chute was blocked off when the

modern concrete floor was laid down. In the NE corner is a semicircular recess, lit by a small

loop, indicating the former presence of a spiral staircase. The eastern section of the north wall

shows evidence of substantial repairs in modern times. A slot to hold the floor joists survives at

a height of 195cm in the north wall and traces of it are also present on the SE corner of the

south wall.

The Second Floor: The second floor was reached via the former spiral staircase in the NE

corner. It has a plain fireplace in the east wall and the splaying jambs of a window survive in

the west wall. Part of a possible jamb survives at the eastern end of the south wall and there

may have been another similar window at the western end where the masonry is now missing. A high-pitched roof would have rested on top of the walls and it was lit in the west gable by a

simple rectangular slit with chamfered jambs and barholes. Externally the line of the gable

sags as it reaches the top of the side walls and this suggests that there may have been a parapet and wall-walk on the south side.

Discussion: The college was established shortly before 1487 by Walter Verd?n, chaplain of Ardee.3 The Register of Primate Octavian states in that year that Verd?n had:

recently built the place known as the College, lying near the east side of the Parochial

Church with a garden attached, to the intent that certain chaplains employed in the

Church of St Mary's may be compelled to reside there in common?in a Hall and

rooms fittingly laid out and constructed?and support themselves on the fruits and

emoluments of their services.4

The document detailing this arrangement mentions the existence of at least six chaplains who

served St Mary's and presumably they moved from private lodgings into the college after it had

been built.5

Chantry colleges were relatively common in medieval Ireland and, within the diocese of

Armagh, similar foundations existed at Drogheda, Dundalk, Stabannon and Termonfeckin6

but it is only at Ardee that any structural evidence survives. Elsewhere in Ireland surviving remains are rarely found. The best known and best preserved medieval college is that at Slane

founded in 1512 by Sir Christopher Fleming and his wife. This was designed to accommodate

four priests, four clerics and four choristers. The surviving remains indicate that it was built

around a rectangular courtyard. The residential wing was on the north side with the cellars and

3. L. P. Murray, "The Ancient Chantries of Co. Louth", C.L.A.J. IX, 3, (1939), pp 181-208, at pp 201-4; A.

Gwynn, The Medieval Province of Armagh 1470-1545 (Dundalk, 1946), p. 84.

4. Murray, loc. cit., p. 202; the Latin text is given on p. 203. 5. Ibid., pp 203-4.

6. Gwynn, The Medieval Province of Armagh, p. 84.

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The Chantry College, Ardee 19

(probably the) kitchen on the east. The south wing with its decorated windows probably held

the common rooms.7 At Howth, County Dublin, a small two-storied building of T-shaped plan survives. There the residential apartments were located in the cross-stroke of the T, while the common rooms and kitchen were in the stem of the T. Records are lacking but the building appears to date to the early sixteenth century.8 The Ardee College is closer in form to that at

Howth rather than Slane and even though it survives in a dilapidated and fragmentary form,

nonetheless, it is an important addition to the small number of such colleges known in Ireland.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I wish to thank Mr Aidan O'Sullivan for his help in preparing the drawings.

Fig. 2. Conjectural reconstruction of the Chantry College, Ardee, showing its possible appearance at the

close of the fifteenth century. Note that the hall would have stood to the rear of the building.

7. Leask, op. cit., pp 30-31; A. Gwynn and R. N. Hadcock, Medieval Religious Houses: Ireland (London, 1970), p. 361.

8. Leask, op. cit., pp 29-30.

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