Church

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated in grassland with stream 90m to N. Killagh House and castle (WM013-107---) stands 150m to W with Killagh Corn Mill 170m to NW. Motte and bailey (WM020-024----) castle lies 60m to S. Poorly preserved remains consist of a rectangular church (ext dims. 6.3m N-S; 19.6m E-W) aligned NW-SE which formed N boundary of a graveyard (WM020-025001-) as depicted on the 1838 ed. OS 6-inch map. The walls of the church are built of limestone rubble, with only a small part of the W end of the S wall and part of the E wall upstanding. Elsewhere only the lower wall courses are visible. The inner facing of a window embrasure is visible in the E wall. A later internal wall divides the E end of the church from the W as depicted on the 25-inch OS map. Several memorials of 18th-19th century date are visible in the interior of the church ruins. Curvilinear earthworks to N, E and S of the church and graveyard are visible on Digital Globe aerial photograph. Some of these earthworks may be contemporaneous with the church while others may relate to post-medieval drainage works.
Killagh Church is depicted on the Down Survey map of Killagh parish where it is annotated as 'in repaire' and shown standing beside Killagh Castle and Mill (NLI MS 723-4). On this map the church is depicted as standing on lands belonging to George Nugent who is listed in 1641 as an 'Irish papist'. The terrier of this map recorded that 'There is in Killagh a Corne Mill a Tuck Mill a Ruined Church and, a Castle in Repaire' (ibid.).

Compiled by: Frank Coyne and Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 25 July 2018

References

NLI, MS 723-4 - National Library of Ireland, The parish maps of the Down Survey for the County of Westmeath, attested by W. Petty, in 1659. Copied by Daniel O'Brien. A set of 67 maps with accompanying terriers in two volumes, 1786-7. Dublin.