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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Ecclesiastical enclosure

Downings North, County Kildare, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Ecclesiastical enclosure, Downings North, County Kildare, with a pin at the register's coordinates
Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915), covering this location. Courtesy of the National Library of Scotland. The pin is ours, placed from the register's coordinates.

The record

Townland
Downings North
County
Kildare
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Indicated
Latest-edition OS map
Indicated
Coordinates
53.28861, -6.77790
SMR number
KD013-008001-

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

4 historical maps cover this location, the earliest the 1790 map "Composite: Ireland." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).

Historical maps covering this location

  • 1790 · Composite: Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1799 · Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1830 · V.3:11-15:XV. Britisches Reich. C. Kon: Ireland. a. Prov: Leinster. Counties: 1-12 (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1891 · Ireland 16 (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

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This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗

The National Monuments Service's description

According to Comerford (1886, 78) this is the site of the 'cell' of St Farnan, a 6th century saint, and a holy well (KD013-009-) dedicated to St. Farnan lies c. 450m to the WSW. Tickell (1960, 408) records a reference to the later, medieval parish church (KD013-008002-) of Downings here, in a Royal Grant of 1627 to Sir Maurice Eustace. The monuments lie on the crest of a short, low, N-facing pasture slope, overlooking an extensive tract of bog to the N, and comprise; a possible early ecclesiastical enclosure (KD013-008001-) which contains a medieval parish church (KD013-008002-), a graveyard (KD013-008003-), a cross-inscribed stone (KD013-008004-), a fragment of a baptismal font (KD013-008005-), and the unlocated saints cell (KD013-008006-). A ringfort lies c. 200m to the E (KD013-007----).
A large D-shaped area (int. diam. c. 88m NE-SW) with a straight NW side (L c. 75m) is defined by a low, inner earthen bank (dims. Wth 4-5m; int. H 0.4-0.7m; ext. H 0.4-1.3m at S) SW-N-SE, and elsewhere by a low scarp (H 0.9m) whose external face is retained by a modern stone wall (av. H 1.2m; T 0.4m) which also retains the external face of the enclosing bank at E but which runs outside the bank along the S and on top of the bank along the N. A shallow fosse (Wth 1.2-2.5m at E; D 0.4-0.6m) runs outside the bank.

Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy

Date of upload: 10 June 2011

Nearby in the register

Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.

Sites and Monuments Record data: National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Record text is reproduced unchanged. National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland · CC BY 4.0
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