Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland
Church
Turnerstown, County Kildare, Ireland
The record
- Townland
- Turnerstown
- County
- Kildare
- Country
- Ireland
- First-edition OS map
- Whitechurch (in Ruins)
- Latest-edition OS map
- Whitechurch (in Ruins)
- Coordinates
- 52.98998, -6.91936
- SMR number
- KD035-029001-
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesNational Library of ScotlandDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries
Shown on 5 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
On level ground overlooking a gentle E-facing slope in tillage. According to Fitzsymons (1906, 104-5), ‘… the ruins of Whitechurch (Kilbawn) … now form part of the mearin-ditch between the townlands of Turnerstown and Fox-hill (formerly called Knockshannagh). Very little now remains of the ruins, as only the walls, very much dilapidated, of a small oblong building are visible (int. 24.5 ft. [c. 7.47m] E-W; 14 ft [c. 4.27m] N-S; wall T 2ft 4 ins. [c. 0.71m]); at the west end the wall is five feet high [c. 1.52m]; they are nearly level with the ground on the north and east sides; the surrounding burial ground [KD035-029002-] is entirely obliterated.’ Fitzsymons shows a doorway (Wth 4.5 ft. [c. 1.37m]) near the W end of the S wall on his plan of the church (op. cit.). In 1985, the surviving walls, built of small undressed mortared limestone boulders, were only 0.9m high, the entrance was no longer identifiable and the field was ploughed up to the base of the church walls (SMR file). When re-inspected in 1996, the walls had been removed: an almost square patch of unploughed clay (18m E-W; 16m N-S) in a ploughed field marked the site of the church (SMR file).
Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy
Date of upload: 17 December 2013
References
Fitzsymons, Rev. P. 1906, Ballads and Poems of the County Kildare. Oonah More: a Legend of Inch Castle. Journal of the Kildare Archaeological Society, No. 5, 101-6
Nearby in the register
- Graveyardunder 1 mi
- Enclosureunder 1 mi
- Ecclesiastical enclosureunder 1 mi
- Ringfort - rathunder 1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.