Graveyard

The National Monuments Service's description

Templenoe Church / An Teampall Nua (KE092-034001-) stands in a graveyard (KE092-034----) on the N shore of Kenmare Bay, overlooking the Greenane Islands at S. It is noted in RIA MS 24 K 43 that both it and the nearby Cappanacush castle (KE092-033----) were built by Cor, grandson of Macarius, of the Sliocht Mac Crah – a branch of the O’Sullivan Mores. This personage has been identified as Conchur O’Sullivan, whose floruit was before c. 1450 (Ó Cíobháin 1985, lxx). A fiant of 1576 records the leasing of half of the rectory of ‘Templenoe, alias New Church’ to Thomas Clinton (Hickson 1891, 48), and the church appears to have still been in repair in 1615 (Royal Visitation). It was included in the listing of parochial churches in the diocese in 1622, and in 1633 Edwardus Grayne is noted as minister of both Templenoe and ‘Killcroghan’ (TCD MS 2158, 37, 94). The church was in ruins by the middle of the eighteenth century (Smith 1756, 71). The first edition of the OS map depicts a T-shaped Catholic chapel built against the N wall of the Medieval church. This appears to have been dismantled by 1895, when only the Medieval building is indicated on the second edition map. Tombs and graves, the earliest of which is dated 1881, now occupy the former position of the chapel.

The above description is derived from A. O'Sullivan and J. Sheehan (compilers), 'The Iveragh peninsula: an archaeological survey of South Kerry'. Cork University Press (1996), no. 1093. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Date of upload: 31 July 2013