Church

The National Monuments Service's description

Towards the bottom of a S-facing slope. Described c. 1912 by Fr. J. Finnan, the Roman Catholic parish priest of Kilteevan, as a small rectangular enclosure (int. dims c. 5.1m x c. 3m) defined by low earth and stone walls (Wth c. 0.9m) with an entrance at W which was known locally as St Ronan's church. Bones were discovered c. 1912, and it is locally thought to be a children’s burial ground (RO040-014004-) (Ryan 1997, 220-1). The church was within a circular ecclesiastical enclosure (RO040-014005-) (diam. c. 60m) defined by a slight scarp (Fanning 1979-80), but this does not survive. A cross-slab (RO040-014002-) (dims 0.52m x 0.48m; T 0.15m) with an incised ringed cross and an inscription interpreted as CROBRAN (Fanning and O'hÉailidhe 1980, 14-16; Herity et al. 1997, 114) was always extant here, but the cross is now in NMI (Scott 2000; O'Mahony 2005, 20). A grass-covered cairn (RO040-014003-) (dims 5m E-W; 2.7m N-S; H 0.55m) is nearby, and two holy wells (RO040-016----; RO040-017----) are c. 600m to the SE.

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 24 August 2010

References

Scott, P. 2000 “Significant find” of 8th century stone. Journal of the Roscommon Historical and Archaeological Society 8, 11.

Herity, M., Kelly, D. and Mattenberger, U. 1997 List of Early Christian cross-slabs in seven north-western counties. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 127, 89-124.

Fanning, T. 1979-80 An early Christian site at Ballinaboy, Co. Roscommon. Journal of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society 37, 90-93.

Fanning, T. and Ó hÉailidhe, P. 1980 Some cross-inscribed slabs from the Irish Midlands. In H. Murtagh (ed.), Irish Midland studies: essays in commemoration of N.W. English, 5-23. Athlone. Old Athlone Society.

Ryan, H. A. 1997 Aspects of Kilteevan history. In H. A. Ryan (ed.) Kilteevan: A look at a school and its parish. 220-34, Kilteevan. Kilteevan School Board of Management

O'Mahony, P. 2005 Roscommon artefacts in the National Museum of Ireland. County Roscommon Heritage Forum