St Fintan's Church, Mountrath
The foundation stone for this church was laid on 17 February 1861, the feast day of St Fintan, to whom the church is dedicated. The church was designed by architect John S. Butler and building was complete by 1867.
The church is neo-Gothic in style, with load-bearing masonry walls which are faced with limestone ashlar. The exterior finishes are in limestone ashlar with some details in sandstone. In general, the interior is a mixture of plasterwork with columns, also in a cream sandstone.
In the late 1700s, the place of worship used by the parishioners was a chapel at a place called 'The Brook,' on a sandbank in a tributary of the river Nore. About 1794, Bishop Daniel Delany, seeking to build a proper church, obtained a site from Mr Hawkesworth, agent for Lord Castlecoote. Work began about 1795, and the parishioners, shocked by the site's large dimensions, called it 'Delany's Folly.' The foundations of this church were defective hence its replacement with the current church.
The Church Micro IE series is open to everyone; if you have a church you would like to place a cache at then please contact THE_Chris through Geocaching.com. This is to keep track of the numbers of the churches and give you the general format for the cache page. In the UK there are thousands in the series so we have some catching up to do! Also, if you currently have a published cache at a church that you would like to include in the series, get in contact and I can add it.