The mid-13th century porch of St Lachtain’s church in Freshford, County Kilkenny. It is believed that the saint after whom this was named established a monastery here at some date prior to his death in 672, but in the aftermath of the Reformation, the church fell into a poor condition, undergoing extensive renovation in 1731 and again in the mid-19th century. As a result, the sandstone porch at the west end is the only part of the mediaeval monastery to survive. It comprises four orders of ornamented arches, the inner one, the plainest, containing a dedicatory inscription in Old Irish: ‘Or do Gilla-Mocholmoc u Ce[nn]cucain do rigne. Or do Neim ingin Cuirc acus do Mathgamain u Chiarmeic lasndernad in tempul-sa’ (Pray for Gilla Mocholmoc O Cennucain who made it. Pray for Neim [Niamh], daughter of Curc and for Mathgamain O Chiarmeic, for whom this church was made.) As is often the case, the outer order, separated from the other three by a shallow barrel vault, is the most elaborate, separated from the rest by a shallow barrel vault and carved with a step pattern and zoomorphic masks. On the west face are two figurative panels, one depicting a rider figure, the other two ecclesiastics. These, together with a third figurative panel set into the jamb of the inner order, do not appear to be in their original locations and may have been arranged when the church was rebuilt in the 18th century. The upper part of the porch is 19th century.

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