Church

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on a low knoll of a general S-facing slope. This building is a Roman Catholic church known as Kilbride, which was built by Rev. Myles McParland. He was the parish priest of Inishmagrath, and the church may be that listed in 1704 (O'Connell 1937, 472). He died in 1737 and is buried inside the building where his horizontal memorial as recorded by Oliver Davies and reads in part ‘Rev. Myles McPartland who founded this church Dyed 1737’ (ITA survey 1943). It is possibly on the site of an older church since the Down Survey (1656-8) county map shows a church at Fingreagh and Kivillin, which was probably at this location. See this web-page accessed on 27/09/2016: http://downsurvey.tcd.ie/down-survey-maps.php#c=Leitrim
The present church is a rectangular structure (ext. dims 9.6m E-W; 6.2m N-S; int. dims 7.9m E-W; 4.85m N-S) built of mortared, randomly-coursed sandstone masonry with dressed quoins, and it survives almost complete (H 2.6m plus). It has a two-light E window in a flat-arched embrasure (Wth 1.1m; H 1.6m), and each light (Wth 0.3m; H 1.28m) is round-headed. There is a rectangular window (Wth 0.47m; H 1m) with dressed surrounds towards the E end of the N wall (T 0.75m) and a plain light of undressed stone towards the E end of the S wall. A round-headed doorway (Wth 0.85m; H 1.8m) in dressed sandstone towards the W end of the N wall has a prominent keystone with the incised date '1735', which may be secondary. Internally, there are two cupboards in the S wall opposite the doorway and there are joist-holes for the ceiling in the E and W walls. Externally, a mortuary enclosure (ext. dims 6.1m N-S; 4.75m E-W; H 1m) abuts the E end of the N wall.
The church is in a subrectangular graveyard (dims c. 20-40m N-S; c. 40-60m E-W) defined by earthen banks and hedges on all sides, except at N where there is a masonry wall adjacent to an ENE-WSW roadway. In the field to N is a circular disused and drystone-built holy well (diam. 0.8-1m; D 0.6m) dedicated to St Bridget. This church was succeeded as the Catholic church by the Old Bog church in Carrowlaur (LE018-058001-) c. 2km to the WSW.

See the attached view from the NW

The above description is derived from 'The Archaeological Inventory of County Leitrim' compiled by Michael J. Moore (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2003). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Date of upload: 23 September 2008

References

O'Connell, P. 1937 The Diocese of Kilmore: its history and antiquities. Dublin. Browne and Nolan.

Irish Tourist Association. Surveys undertaken in the 1940s for the Irish Tourist Association (now Fáilte Ireland) relating to ‘Natural features, antiquities, historic associations etc.' Extracts from these surveys were copied into the Topographical files of the Office of Public Works and these have been incorporated into the Sites and Monuments Record files (National Monuments Service).