Ecclesiastical enclosure

The National Monuments Service's description

On a low rocky spur projecting W from higher ridge to NE and skirted to W by a small, fast-flowing stream, within a field system (CL005-108001-). There is improved pasture to N and S. A church (CL005-108003-) and graveyard (CL005-108004-) are indicated and named ‘Killeany Church (in ruins) Graveyard’ on the 1842 and 1916 eds. of the OS 6-inch maps and the stream running along its W side is named ‘Owentoberlea’. The site is reputed to have been founded by St. Enda ‘the evangelizer of Aran’ (Westropp 1900, 108).

An ecclesiastical enclosure (c. 120m E-W; 90m N-S), only traceable from E to SW and at NW, defined by an internally and externally faced wall (Wth c. 1.4m; max. int. H 0.9m; max. ext. H 1m) from E to SE and a bank from SE to SW. There is an entrance gap (Wth 1.7m) at SSW flanked by two large transverse slabs. The stream skirting the site to the W may have delimited it from SW to NW and a modern wall running on the line of a low cliff appears to run on the line of it at N.

A ruined medieval church (CL005-108003-) is in the SE sector. The church is surrounded by a rectangular graveyard (CL005-108004-) that sits over the site of (and removed all trace of) the enclosure from E to SE. A penitential station (CL005-108005-) and cursing stones (CL005-108008-) sit on the approximate line of the enclosure within the E sector of the graveyard. A house of indeterminate date (CL005-108006-) and a kiln (CL005-108007-) are located in the N sector of the enclosure.

Compiled by: Mary Tunney and Ros Ó Maoldúin

Date of upload: 15 March 2023

References

Westropp, T.J. 1900-02 The churches of Co. Clare and the origin of the ecclesiastical divisions in that county. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Series 3, vol. 6, 100-180.