Ecclesiastical enclosure

The National Monuments Service's description

In pasture, on the lower S-facing slopes of Barrerneen. The ruins of Temple Feaghna (church of St. Fiachna)(KE102-038001-) stands in the N quadrant of a subrectangular-shaped burial ground (KE102-038001-) defined by an earthen bank (Wth 2m; H 1m) which may have originally been constructed as the ecclesiastical enclosure of a monastery associated with St. Fiachna (raven) who may be the same Fiachra Goll of Clonfert (Cluain Fearta), Co. Galway who belonged through his father to Dáire to the Uí Bhairrche clan of the Laois/Carlow area (Ó Riain 2011, 316). In a note added to this Fiachra's pedigree, John Colgan wondered whether he might be the hermit named Fiacre whose cult, centred on Meaux, spread widely in France (ibid.). The French feast of 30 August was first introduced to the Irish calendar in the late twelfth century by the compiler of the Martyrology of Gorman, it came to be observed, in the form of its vigil, at St Fiachna's well (KE102-038004-) in the Kerry parish of Kilcaskan and nearby, in the townland of Gearhanagoul, was a celebrated bush [KE102-054----] associated with Fiachna (ibid.). The boundaries of the parish pf Kilcaskan were described by the Ordnance Survey as; 'There is but a small portion of this Parish in the County of Kerry, the original church and by far the greater part of the Parish being in the County of Cork'.
The 1841 ed. OSi 6-inch map shows the curving arc of the ecclesiastical enclosure from WSW-W-N, this curving field boundary is not indicated on the revised editions of the OSi historic maps. The burial ground lies within a second larger rectangular, stone-walled enclosure (82m N-S; 62m E-W) of 19th century date which has a pillared entrance gate at NE. Low uninscribed grave-markers were noted, especially to S and SE and there is a mound of loose stones at the centre. According to Dennehy (1997, 161), the use of the graveyard as 'a ceallúnach [KE102-038006-] is substantiated by the presence of three short, low mounds on the N side of the enclosure, between the inner and outer enclosing elements'. A bullaun stone (KE102-038003-) lies c. 20m to the S and Toberfeaghna holy well (KE102-038004-) lies c. 50m to the E. A second bullaun stone (KE102-038005-), now in the roadside fence lies c. 50m to the N, and is said locally to have been formerly in the graveyard.

Revised by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of revised upload: 28 September 2022

References

Dennehy, E. 1997 The ceallúnaigh of county Kerry: an archaeological perspective. Unpublished M.A. thesis, University College, Cork.

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