Abbey (Site of)

In pasture, on flat ground and on the E side of a road, named 'Stirabout Road' on the 1838 OS 6-inch map. Within the N half of Kilcummin graveyard (SL031-005002-) and also within a possible ecclesiastical enclosure (SL031-005003-). No trace is evident of the building indicated on the 1838 OS 6-inch map as a rectangular structure (c. 20m E-W; c. 10m N-S) and named 'Abbey'. It was recorded in 1836 as 'an old abbey in ruins in Cill Cuimín' (OSL, 389). According to local information, 'considerable fragments' of the church remained up to the 1880s but these were all reused as grave-markers (SL031-005004-) (O'Rorke [1889], vol. 2, 130-31). The base of a window and two jambstones are still evident in the graveyard (pers. comm. M. A. Timoney). Part of the enclosing vallum may be extant (SL031-005003-). According to Gwynn and Hadcock (1970, 390), Kilcummin was founded 'perhaps by St. Caeman or by St. Coemgen'. The site of a friary (SL031-006001-) and a bullaun stone (SL031-006002-) are c. 60m and c. 130m to the NE respectively. An associated holy well, 'Tobar Cuimín' (SL031-005005-), remains unlocated. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Sligo' compiled by Ursula Egan, Elizabeth Byrne, Mary Sleeman with Sheila Ronan and Connie Murphy (Dublin Stationery Office, 2005). Date of upload: 18 January 2008

The site of Abbey at Kilcummin is associated with an early Christian church, likely founded in the medieval period, and may have been dedicated to a local saint. Its location within a possible ecclesiastical enclosure suggests it was part of a significant religious settlement, though specific builders and dates remain unidentified.