Church in Ballybla

According to Price (1967, 425) Kilbla was the same place as Churcheston near Wicklow which is listed in the extent of the Irish Monastic Possessions c. 1540. Price recorded that Ballybla was 'the same place as Kilbla (see Ballybla, p. 409); if so it was some three or four miles from Wicklow. The deed of c.1280 grants a rent of 12d. to the Hospital of St. John Baptist out of a burgage at Kilbla. Churcheston, which was part of the Hospitals possessions in 1540, was a tenement held at a rent of 2lbs of wax worth 12d. The grant of 1615 is of a tenement and garden, rent 1s. It seems probable that these entries refer to the same plot of ground' (Price 1967, 425). In 1615, King James I granted Gerald Aylmer of Monkstown, Dublin, a 'tenement and garden in Churchton near Wicklow; parcel of the estate of the hospital of St. John the Baptist without Newgate, Dublin; rent 1s.' (Griffith 1966, 283). The precise location of any church within this townland has not been identified. Date of upload: 29 November 2012

The church at Ballybla was likely founded in the early medieval period, associated with a monastic site dedicated to St Bla. It is thought to have been built by a local monastic community, possibly under the influence of the wider monastic network in Leinster. Its significance lies in its connection to early Christian settlement and ecclesiastical activity in the region.