Ecclesiastical enclosure

The National Monuments Service's description

Early Christian monastery founded by Beoain of Fid Chuiilinn in the territory of Uibh Faelain whose feastday falls on the 8th of August (Stokes 1905, 184). The Martyrology of Tallaght records this date as the feastday of 'Beoain mic Nessan i Fidh Cullend'. Ó Riain (2011, 104) recorded the following details about, 'Beoán of Feighcullen (Fiodh Cuilinn) who was one of seven sons of Neasán who belonged to the powerful Uí Fhaoláin branch of the Uí Dhúnlainge of north Leinster'. Beoán is listed as bishop at Feighcullen in an early seventeenth-century list of Kildare churches, and was remembered on the 8th of August (ibid.).
According to the OSL (Herity 2002, 68-9 (201-2)), ' … in the Calendar, we read: Beoan MacNeasain Espog (sic) ó Fiodhchuilinn in uibh Faoláin' (which can be translated as, 'MacNeasan the bishop from Feighcullen lives in uibh Faoláin'), and, according to local tradition, quoted by Jackson (1979-80, 157), a holy well (KD017-009006-) in this townland was believed to be on the site of a monastery. The OSL further record that the 'Parochial church (KD017-009003-) stands on the site of the old church (KD017-009001-)', and that 'In the Inquisition 20 May 10 Elizabeth (1568) … Fecullen occurs as a rectory'. In open, level pasture. A very large and very poorly preserved, roughly circular area (est. diam. c. 250m) is defined by a shallow fosse (Wth 4-6m; D 0.2m) NE-E-SW. The interior contains small rectilinear fields which may be a later, medieval field system (KD017-009002-), is densely covered in cultivation ridges and is bisected ENE-WSW by a modern field wall. A graveyard (KD017-009005-) containing a 19th century Parochial Church stands on the W limits (CUCAP (1966) APH084-9; CUCAP (1967) ATA031-2).

See attached oblique aerial photographs (CUCAP APH084-9; ATA031-2) taken 1966 and 1967 and Google Earth orthoimages.

Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy

Revised by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of revised upload: 15 July 2021

References

Herity, M. (ed.) 2002 Ordnance Survey Letters Kildare. Dublin. Four Masters Press.

OSL - Ordnance Survey Letters. Letters written by members of the Ordnance Survey's 'Topographical Department' (T. O'Conor, A. O'Curry, E. Curry, J. O'Donovan and P. O'Keeffe) sent to headquarters from the field (1834-41). MSS in Royal Irish Academy.

Ó Riain, P. 2011 A dictionary of Irish Saints. Dublin. Four Courts Press.

CUCAP - Cambridge University Collection of Aerial Photographs. Unit for Landscape Modelling, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge. See:https://www.cambridgeairphotos.com

Jackson, P. 1979-80 The holy wells of Co. Kildare. Journal of the Kildare Archaeological Society 16, 133-61.

Stokes, W. 1905 The Martyrology of Oengus the Culdee. London.