Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland
Church
Fontstown Lower, County Kildare, Ireland
The record
- Townland
- Fontstown Lower
- County
- Kildare
- Country
- Ireland
- First-edition OS map
- Church
- Latest-edition OS map
- Church (in Ruins)
- Coordinates
- 53.05237, -6.89144
- SMR number
- KD031-014----
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries
Shown on 4 historical map sheets, the earliest the 1790 "Composite: Ireland." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).
This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗
The National Monuments Service's description
In a graveyard (KD031-014001-). According to Ronan (1941b, 96-7), the church was called 'Villa Fonti', and was he says, ‘in waste’ in 1294 according to an Ecclesiastical Taxation. The church and chancel are described as ‘ruinous' in Archbishop Bulkeley’s Visitation of Dublin, 1630 (op. cit). A ruined rectangular structure (traceable L 14.7m E-W; Wth 6.7m N-S) appears to comprise the N and S sidewalls of a medieval church built of random rubble limestone (wall T 0.9m) into which a later (18th/19th-century?) W gable wall (T 0.7m) was inserted. The E gable wall (T 0.75m) also appears to have been rebuilt. The ‘new’ structure (L 9.25m E-W) has a partially robbed out doorway (Wth 1.1m) in the W gable wall, two robbed out windows in the S sidewall, and a robbed out window and a blocked up window embrasure in the N sidewall. The E gable wall contains a round arched window incorporating some red brick and carries a bell cote. A broken font (KD031-014002-) lies in the NW corner of the overgrown interior.
Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy
Date of upload: 07 October 2013
References
Ronan, M.V. 1941 Archbishop Bulkeley's Visitation of Dublin, 1630. Archivium Hibernicum 8, 56-98.
Nearby in the register
- Fontunder 1 mi
- Graveyardunder 1 mi
- Ringfort - rathunder 1 mi
- Enclosureunder 1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.