Church

The National Monuments Service's description

In a graveyard (KD032-013001-). According to a 1943 Irish Tourist Association Survey (SMR file), the first church at Kilrush was built by St. Briga in the 5th-century but no visible surface trace survives. Later, a cell of the Augustinian Cartmel Priory in Lancashire was founded at Kilrush in or before 1201-02 when Cartmel was obtaining corn from Ireland. Kilrush appears to have been a large farming cell, with three to four canons, and not a conventual priory. In 1558, Kilrush was granted to the Earl of Ormond and then included a castle (KD032-014----), some messuages (houses with outbuildings and yards) and 360 acres of arable land (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 184). A very ruined and ivy clad nave and chancel structure may stand on the site of the earlier monastery. Only portions of the N and S sidewalls of the nave (traceable L 12.7m E-W; Wth 5.8m N-S) built of undressed rubble masonry, and its E gable wall containing a chancel arch (Wth 2.6m; H 2.9m) survive. Of the chancel (L 7.7m E-W; Wth 4.3m), only its E gable wall containing a robbed out window and the short returns of the N and S sidewalls survive. The interior contains many burials and a font (KD032-014002-).

Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy

Date of upload: 16 October 2013