Church

The National Monuments Service's description

Located on a slight W-facing slope in the valley of N-S stream. This is an early ecclesiastical church site and the parish church of Kilcowan within a subrectangular graveyard (dims 39.5m NW-SE; 32m NE-SW) defined by masonry walls and hedges. It was the church of St. Cuán of Aribhre, who was a contemporary of St. Munna of Taghmon (WX041-008003-) and who raised Ceallachán, the son of the king of the Fothairt (Forth barony) (Ó Riain 2011, 239). His feast day was on the 10th July, but St. Cuan's Well is c. 2 km to the NNE is Longridge townland. The church of Kilcogan in Bargy was one of those granted by Hervey de Montmorency to Christchurch Abbey in Canterbury when he entered it as a monk c. 1183 (Brooks 1950, 37). These churches were granted in turn to the Cistercian abbey of Tintern (WX045-029001-) in 1245 (Hore 1900-11, vol. 2, 27), and Kylcohan is listed amongst Tintern’s possessions at the Suppression in 1540 (ibid. vol. 2, 81; White 1943, 360). According to a Visitation by Thomas Ram, the Protestant bishop of Ferns, in 1615 the vicar Patrick Kelly was guilty of adultery and deprived of office but the state of the church is not mentioned (Hore 1900-11, vol. 6, 268).

The church is a rectangular structure defined by grass covered wall foundations (ext. dims 18m plus E-W; 6.8m N-S). Only the W wall and the adjacent part of the S wall with an elliptical-headed doorway (Wth 0.82m; H 1.67m) survive to a height of 2.3m. There is a granite bullaun stone (dims 0.88m x 0.66m; H 0.23m) with a single basin (dims 0.34m x 0.32m; D 0.2m) set in the ground outside the NW corner of the church. The church and graveyard are towards the E edge of a larger oval ecclesiastical enclosure (diam. c. 160m E-W; c. 110m N-S) defined by field banks W-N-SE, and the cropmark of a bank and outer fosse with a narrower inner drain SE-W, which are visible on aerial photographs (CUCAP, AVK 79, AYK 18). The field bank defining the perimeter of the enclosure has been removed SW-N. Archaeological testing (12E0245) c. 70m E-SE of the graveyard and just outside the ecclesiastical enclosure failed to produce any related material (Cleary 2012). See this web-page access on 15/03/2016: http://www.excavations.ie/report/2012/Wexford/0023608/ (Culleton 1999, 127)

The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Wexford' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1996). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of revision: 20 August, 2013
Amended: 15 March 2016

References

Brooks E.St. J. (ed.) 1950 Knights' fees in Counties Wexford, Carlow and Kilkenny (13th-15th century). Dublin. Stationery Office.

Hore, P.H. 1900-1911 (Reprint 1979) History of the town and county of Wexford, 6 vols. Dublin. Published by arrangement with W.A. Hennessy Esq.

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

Culleton, E. 1999 Celtic and Early Christian Wexford. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1999.

White, N.B. 1943 Extents of Irish monastic possessions, 1540-1541. Dublin. Irish Manuscripts Commission.

Cleary, R. M. 2012 Report on archaeological test trenches at Kilcowan, Rathangan, Co. Wexford. Licence No. 12E0245. Unpublished report, Dept. of Archaeology, University College Cork.