PRIORY CONSERVATION REPAIRS TULSK, CO.

Project Ref: ROS 000444 & ROS000557

FINAL REPORT 20:01:14

This project received grant aid from Roscommon LEADER Partnership Rural Development Programme which is financed by the Irish Government under the Rural Development Programme Ireland 2007-2013 and by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development: Europe investing in Rural Areas. This project was also funded by , Tulsk Action Group, Tulsk Cemetery Committee and the people of Tulsk.

An action of the Heritage Plan 2012-2016 TULSK PRIORY, TULSK, CO. ROSCOMMON

CONSERVATION WORKS: FINAL REPORT 20:01:2014

General The ruined Dominican priory of St. Patrick situated at Tulsk, Co. Roscommon dates from 1488. It is situated in what is now a public cemetery, along the N5, between and . The limestone ruins are prominent along the road, and are situated in the middle of the village. Less visible are the sites of a ringfort and a medieval castle on the opposite side of the road, which along with the prehistoric fort of several kilometres to the west form a rich depository of archaeological heritage. It seems that the priory was derelict when English forces established a garrison on the site in 1582, and at that time stone salvaged from the site was used to form a tower or fortified house to the eastern end of the nave for their use. This tower house is recorded as been demolished in the middle of the seventeenth century, and is shown ruined in eighteenth-century views. Since then, it has lost the west gable of the nave and its interior and immediate surrounds have been filled with mausolea and memorials. Its wider curtilage is now used as a municipal graveyard.

Statutory Protection The site is a national monument and the relevant protected structures included in the Record of Protected Structures are 02200083 Tulsk Abbey, 02200084 Burial Vault, Grace Family, 02200085 Burial Vault, Taaffe Family. The national monuments included in the Record of Monuments and Places are RMP ref. no.s- RO022-114006 Religious House- Domincan friairs; RO022-114008 Graveyard; RO022-114009 Castle Tower House; RO022-114007 Tomb- Altar; RO022-114013 Architectural fragments; RO022-114014 Crucifixion Plaque, RO022-114015 Armorial Plaque. A Section 57 Declaration Record PS 11/5 sets out permissible conservation repairs to the priory that would not require planning approval. Ministerial Consent ref. C384, reg. no. W57 for conservation repairs to the priory was obtained in 2010.

Background The Discovery Programme published a wide-ranging study of historic sites in North Roscommon as Programme Report 7 in 2005. Their report included a survey of the priory and graveyard at Tulsk, which included a detailed plan of the site, a photographic record, an inventory of architectural fragments identified and a history of the development of the site using historical sources. Following its inclusion in its Heritage Plan, Roscommon County Council commissioned Gifford Archaeology to prepare a Conservation Management Plan for the Tulsk Gaelic Medieval Complex that included the priory, graveyard, castle and the ringfort. The report was prepared in 2008, and involved public consultation and a detailed condition assessment as well as an action plan that included a schedule of necessary conservation works. In 2012, Holey Hayes Architects were appointed by Roscommon Co. Co. to implement a phase of repair works to the priory that were to be completed by the end of 2013 in order to comply with grant conditions of the Leader fund. The design team also included Punch Consulting Engineers, CRDS Ltd. (archaeologists) and Brian Keeley (wildlife survey).

Survey & Methodology When first surveyed by HHA in December 2012, there were extensive areas of ivy growth where the roots were deeply embedded in the walls. Loose stones were evident along the wall bases and other areas were clearly partially collapsed or at significant risk. The vegetation was of particular concern due to its bulk and weight (risk of collapse during high winds) and damage caused by embedded roots dislodging stones and contributing to structural instability. The priory posed a significant risk to the health and safety of the public due to its vulnerable condition and location in a working graveyard. In April 2013, the ivy covering was treated using herbicide sprayed from a hoist. This hoist was also used to undertake a visual inspection of the wall heads and upper areas of the structure not accessible from ground level. The mausolea and memorials around the structure were found to be in poor condition. The Grace mausoleum, the largest and most impressive of the memorials dating from the nineteenth century, was losing the stone facings on its roof and walls but its superstructure appeared to be sound from an inspection of its interior. The elevations of the priory were recorded by HHA using photographs and site measurements along with the survey plan prepared by the Discovery Programme; but much of the detail was obscured by the ivy coverage. CRDS Ltd. attended site to monitor the works as a condition of the Ministerial Consent, and Brian Keeley undertook the bat surveys. Punch Consulting assessed the structural condition of the priory and mausoleum and prepared a report outlining their findings and prepared drawings of temporary works and structural repairs.

Scope of Works HHA prepared a detailed Schedule of Works for inclusion in the tender documents along with the drawings and specifications. We prioritised the works in the following order: health and safety, integrity of the monument, protection. This translated in the works programme to- treatment and removal of embedded roots; consolidation of structural voids and weathering of the wall heads. The works necessary to the voids and openings were accurately described, the quantities of ivy removal, re-building, pinning and pointing estimated from the drawings and condition survey. The works included all of the repairs necessary to the priory, with contingency sums set aside for unforeseen repairs and the stabilisation of the Grace mausoleum. It was anticipated that there would be insufficient funds to properly repair the mausoleum in this phase of the works.

Description The priory as it survives is built of random rubble limestone brought to courses bedded in lime mortar having lost much of its pointing with some isolated areas of hard cement evident. The carved stone arches of the south window of the transept along with the entrance into the nave are the finest examples of the mason’s craft to be found in the structure. Architectural fragments including finely carved strings, quoins, cornices and jambs are to be found embedded in the tower wall, some assembled into arrow loops and fire surrounds. There remains evidence of external render and lime plaster to the interior. There are three main sections upstanding- the nave, the tower house and the transept. Of the nave, a 30 metre length of the south wall and incomplete sections of the west and north walls remain but obscured by dense ivy. The west wall of the tower house has been preserved to a height of approximately eight metres and is almost completely covered in ivy. The transept has retained walls on each side, but the east-facing wall consists primarily of drystone infill. The south gable and west wall are complete up to the level of the former roof. The transept and nave wall contain many wall memorials with fine carvings and some table tombs aside from the larger mausolea dedicated to the Grace, Taaffe and Dowell families.

Site Works The works were tendered in May 2013, and the successful tenderer Paul Mulcair Ltd., commenced on site in late September 2013, with an 8-week programme. The works commenced with the protection of the memorials with plywood and bubblewrap, both within the building and its immediate surroundings. They first sprayed the ivy accessible from the ground with herbicide. The scaffold was erected to the entire structure, and this allowed them to spray the upper areas. They then proceeded to tap the largest ivy roots with root killer. Temporary shoring was erected to the south side of the Grace mausoleum to ensure its stability over the course of the works. The impact on the graveyard was kept to a minimum by keeping the site area close to the base of the structure. Batched mortars were brought to the work areas by wheelbarrow. No stone was introduced onto the site during the works, stones were retrieved from the base of the walls as the works progressed as the scaffold positions in some cases inhibited access. The small amount of stone remaining was stacked neatly at the base of the tower wall.

Lime Mortar Specification A natural hydraulic lime (NHL 3.5) was used with a similar range of coarse to fine aggregates and sand (2:1 mix). No Portland Cement or strong hydraulic mixes were used in the conservation of the Priory.

Priory Repairs The contractor commenced the masonry repairs by pinning and pointing and consolidating the areas not covered by ivy such as the inner faces of the transept, and both sides of the south nave wall. Clipping the ivy dropping from the wall heads allowed them to pin and point the external faces of the transept and the lower areas of the tower wall. Any lime pointing or lime render found to be sound was left in place. Voids in the wall faces where stones had been displaced were re-faced with stones found at the base of the walls. Structural features such as the channel along the inside face of the north nave wall were consolidated so that they could be read as architectural features. There was not enough stone to re-face the large voids in the facing stone to the west side of the transept. The eroded corner of the transept had lost its quoins, so the surfaces were consolidated rather than introducing imported stone. A broken marble memorial slab was found among the rubble at the base of the west transept wall. This may have belonged to one of the voids on the wall that looks shaped to have received a plaque. They then proceeded to work on the transept by first removing the ivy from the walls and then carefully unpicking loose stones and removing soil from the wall heads. A large tree root was found in the south-west corner which was left in place until the eroded areas in its vicinity were consolidated. When the level was brought down to a sound base, this stone was then placed back on top of the wall and flaunched using small stones and lime mortar laid to fall so that water could run off efficiently. The window surround to the south transept window was found to be stable and no stones were disturbed in the ivy removal. The only stone found to the outer face was a single carved jamb, which was bedded in surrounding rubble in such a way as to suggest that it was placed there during consolidation works in the past. There was evidence of wicker centring used to form the arch visible, and the stone arch joints remained intact so were left largely in place. The cracks and open joints to the arched doorway into the nave were filled with lime putty. The eroded sections of wall around the wall plaques were infilled and the surrounding masonry pinned and pointed. Interesting carved stone channels were found along a ledge under the transept gable to the interior of the nave. These were possibly intended to save the internal ceiling finishes from failures of the roof covering leading to water ingress. The removal of the ivy uncovered additional areas requiring consolidation and repair, and some voids were larger than anticipated. However, in the main the structure was not in a worse condition than was feared, so works were able to proceed at a good pace. The ivy clearance then proceeded to the nave and the tower walls, where large tree roots also had to be removed from high level. Six cubic metres of stone was carefully removed from the north corner of the tower wall, labelled and set aside on the scaffold. This corner was very unstable, and the arrow loops above and below had been displaced to a point of collapse. The stonework to the tower wall was mortared through the full depth with no loose fill in the centre, so this helped in the removal of ivy and limited the amount of rebuilding work necessary at the vulnerable areas. Large ivy roots had caused the most damage at the wall heads, junctions between the tower and nave walls, around openings such as arrow loops, fire surrounds and doors. Instead of installing stainless steel, Punch Consulting advised that the consolidation of the curved staircase wall to the east side from a solid base at the sill level of the arrow loop to the first floor would serve to stitch the two walls together. The rebuilding of the stonework to the north corner involved the re-bedding of the arrow loops that were themselves assembled from architectural salvage from the church or cloister. Lintel stones found at the base of the wall were re-used, and the wide joint between the tower and nave walls was pinned and pointed so that ivy roots would not be able to push in between the two leafs. The flues of the fireplaces within the tower were found to be in reasonable condition, and a steel bar was installed to tie the northern flue where stones had fallen away. The wall head was consolidated and flaunched and the ruined edges of the former nave walls were consolidated with rough racking. Carved stones were identified within the wall, used as facings and a jamb of a former window was uncovered on the south side that corresponds to a feature shown on Bigari’s view of 1779. The final feature to be repaired was the south window to the nave, of which only the barest amount of the arch survived. In this case, a stainless steel centring was installed after consolidation of the window surrounds so that no new stone was added to the arch and the structural repair could be clearly interpreted. The sections of the east transept wall that had been re-built with drystone were left in place, their top stones fixed in place with dabs of lime mortar. The upstanding sections of mortared walls that remained, also visible in Bigari’s view, were pinned and pointed after removing the ivy roots.

Grace Mausoleum Repairs The allowance made for the stabilization of the Grace Mausoleum only related to vegetation treatment, temporary shoring, removal of unstable stones and strapping if required. Roscommon County Council was keen to repair the structure properly and so provided additional funds, that along with unspent contingencies from the priory repairs allowed the comprehensive stabilization and repair of the exterior of the structure. The trees rooting on the structures roof had displaced much of the stone slabs on either slope, and had also displaced the large eave stones and the wall facings below. This has led to stones falling from the structure, which is a serious health and safety risk to the public in a working graveyard. From the inspection of the interior, it was found that the vaulted rubble masonry superstructure was sound and the crypt and chapel walls relatively dry being well ventilated by the windows. The contractors commenced the repairs to the mausoleum when the main repairs to the priory were completed. They scaffolded the structure to provide access to the roof, and commenced treatment of the vegetation as well as the removal and careful labeling of loose stones. The bedding under the stone slabs was loose in places, repaired with concrete in others, and the trees were thoroughly embedded on the roof with roots trailing down to the walls and a lot of soil built up over the years. The limestone ashlar facing stones where they had become displaced were re-bedded and strapped back with stainless steel ties to the rubble superstructure. They were re-pointed with the same mix as used for the priory, but the joints were not brushed down as much so that they would weather to resemble the surviving jointing over time. The large carved eave stones were then re-bedded on top of the facings and back onto the rubble core. This allowed the large roof slabs to be re-bedded and strapped down with stainless steel ties. They were pointed up with NHL 5 lime mortar due to the risk of its exposure. Replacement stone slabs were sourced and used on the southern, less visible, slope.

Summary The conservation works to Tulsk Priory and Grace mausoleum are now complete; protection remains in place in order that the more recent lime work can carbonate. The protection was installed prior to the Christmas holidays, and will remain in place until Spring when the risk of frost damage has dissipated. The removal of the embedded ivy from the walls has arrested the pace of decay that was putting the stability of the national monument, and public safety, at risk. With the wall heads and the voids consolidated, vegetation will have less opportunity to take hold. However, a regular programme of inspection and maintenance should be instituted to ensure that the structure is not put at risk in future from long neglect. It is a testament to the original builders that the building has survived as a ruin for so many centuries. The recently completed conservation works have ensured that the priory will stand at the centre of Tulsk for future generations, and the view that Bigari recorded over two hundred years ago will have little changed.

FMN/ HHA 20 January 2014