Church

The National Monuments Service's description

Near the N end of a graveyard (KE102-038002-). The remains of a rectangular church (int. dims. 13.65m E-W; 6.05m N-S) built of uncoursed rubble set in a lime mortar. Most of the walls are greatly reduced in height (T 1.05m; max. H 0.9m) except for the ivy-covered NE corner (3m N-S; 2.5m E-W; H 4.5m) which survives to near full height. There is an opening (Wth 1.2m) W of centre in the S wall but this portion of the wall has been heavily rebuilt and this may not be an original feature. The interior is occupied by burial plots, and altar-tombs abut the outside of the E and S walls and one overlies the NW corner. The condition of the church in 1840 was much as it is today (OSL, 178). There is a holy well (KE102-038004-) c. 50m to the E and the church ruin formed part of the 'rounds' held at the well (Bigger 1898, 321).

The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Kerry. Volume I: South-West Kerry' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2009). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Medieval church ruins of 'Temple Feaghna' (Church of St Fhiachna) stands in the townland of Garranes (Na Garráin/the copses) in the parish of Kilcaskan (Cill Cháscáin), diocese of Ardfert, baronty of Glanarought (Gleann Ó Ruachta). This church 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.). Temple Feaghna was described in 1841 as a; ‘small portion of the ruins of an old church of St. Fiachna’s called in Irish Teampull Fiachna. It was 44 ft 10 in. [13.66m] in length and 19ft. 10in. [6m] in breadth, and its walls were 3ft [0.9m] thick & built of very large green stones cemented with lime and sand mortar. All its walls are now destroyed to the foundations except the North half of the East gable and six feet [1.8m] of the North wall connected with the gable. This fragment of the North wall is 8ft. [2.4m] high and 3ft. [0.9m] thick and looks very ancient. No doorway or window remaining’ (O’Donovan 1983). In 1898 the pattern at this site was described as follows; 'A Patron is held here on Good Friday, Saturday, and Easter Sunday. A visitor commences his devotions at a low stone in the middle of the south wall of the old church, where he makes a cross with a pebble on the slab (which is quite worn with such marking), then he goes around the church three times, then halts at a rude shrine in the east wall, after which he goes to the graves of his relatives, then to the holy well, and finally to the bullan stone to the south of the church. When the devotees arrive at this rock they sometimes move these stones and other wise use them, but do not take them away, in fact it is firmly believed that they could not be taken away' (Bigger 1898, 321).
In 2009 a graveyard survey carried out by Bernard O’Mahony of Aegis Archaeology Ltd. recorded the following details about Temple Feaghna Burial Ground (KE102-038002-); ‘The site is on a west facing slope on the south side of the hill at Barrerneen, 1.5km to the northeast of the village of Bunane. The site was originally indicated on the 1841 1st edition 6’’ Ordnance Survey map as ‘Templefeaghna (in ruins)’ with the holy well ‘Toberfeaghna’ and on the 1895 25’’ Ordnance Survey map as ‘Temple feaghna (in ruins)’ and ‘Burial Ground’ with the holy well ‘Toberfeaghna’. The extents of the burial ground, a sub-rectangular enclosed space, as shown on the 1841 Ordnance Survey map appears to be the remaining enclosing bank that is still present in the graveyard. The 1895 map shows a change with the enclosure further enclosed within a rectangular boundary wall. It is located on high ground overlooking the valley of the Coomeelan Stream to the east and south. The ruins of a medieval church stand to the north of the centre of the graveyard. The ruins of the church remain as very low walls on the north, south and west sides. Rubble collapse is visible at the base of the north and west walls and against the base of the inside of the east wall. The east wall of the church is ivy-covered and this vegetation extends to a tomb built against the outside of the east wall' (O'Mahony 2009).

See attached plan of graveyard courtesy of Aegis Archaeology Ltd.

Revised by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of revised upload: 28 September 2022

References

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

OSL - Ordnance Survey Letters. Letters written by members of the Ordnance Survey's 'Topographical Department' (T. O'Conor, A. O'Curry, E. Curry, J. O'Donovan and P. O'Keeffe) sent to headquarters from the field (1834-41). MSS in Royal Irish Academy.

Bigger, F.J. 1898 The lake and church of Kilmakillage, the ancient church, holywell and bullan stone of Temple Feaghna and the holy well and shrine at Saint Finan's County Kerry. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 28, 314-17, 323-4.

O'Donovan, J. 1983 The antiquities of the county of Kerry. Cork. Royal Carbery Books.

O'Mahony, B. 2009 Graveyard Survey at Feaghna Graveyard, Co. Kerry. Unpublished report by Aegis Archaeology Ltd. for Kerry County Council