Ratass Church is a medieval church with ogham stone inscriptions in Tralee, County Kerry, Ireland. It is a National Monument.[3][4]
Ratass Church | |
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Rathass Church | |
Teampall Ráth Teas | |
Ratass Church | |
52°16′01″N 9°40′55″W / 52.267007°N 9.681814°W | |
Location | Quill Street, Tralee, County Kerry |
Country | Ireland |
Denomination | Catholic (pre-Reformation) |
Architecture | |
Functional status | ruined |
Style | Romanesque |
Years built | 10th century AD |
Specifications | |
Length | 16 m (52 ft) |
Width | 7.5 m (25 ft) |
Number of floors | 1 |
Floor area | 120 m2 (1,300 sq ft) |
Materials | sandstone, limestone, mortar[1] |
Administration | |
Diocese | Ardfert and Aghadoe |
Official name | Ratass Church & Ogham Stone[2] |
Reference no. | 57 |
The church and adjacent graveyard are located on Quill Street, in the eastern suburbs of Tralee.[5]
It is believed that a ringfort or embanked enclosure was built here first (Rath Mhaighe Teas, "fort of the southern plain").[6] Later, a sandstone church was erected in the 10th century. It served as the episcopal seat of a diocese in Kerry from 1111 to 1117, when the seat was moved to Ardfert.[7] The west gable and part of the nave walls belong to this earlier construction; the rest of the church is later.[8]
The Ogham Stone is from much earlier. Based on its Primitive Irish grammar, the inscription is estimated to be from around AD 550–600.[9]
The stone is of fine purple sandstone (145 × 34 × 20 cm), with the inscription [A]NM SILLANN MAQ VATTILLOGG ("name of Sílán son of Fáithloga").[10] It was discovered in 1975 during a cleanup. The walls of a 19th-century burial vault had been built almost flush with it.[11]