
What is recorded here
Doon Church occupied a holy fort granted to Fintan around 580, standing beside a convent until humans tilted the building into soil. That sudden loss erased the church but preserved the memory of a place where worship, burial and everyday life shared one small landscape.
Westropp (1904-5, 438) recorded the following about Doon Church; 'A parish in Coonagh. The ancient Dun Bleisc. The fort is still extant. Fintan, son of Pipan, was granted Dun Blesce, c. 580, and there founded his church. He was a disciple of Comgall. The prebend of Dunleisg, with Templebredon, Grean, and the chapel of Liscormuke, was held by Rev. Matthew MacBryen in 1559 by papal provision (Fiant, 84).
Site - Canon O'Hanlon says that about 1855 an old church stood opposite the priest's house, near the Convent of Mercy. It is now tilled ("Lives of the Saints," i., p. 45). At it was buried Eamon a Chnoic Ryan, 1690 (Fitzgerald, i., p. 280). (Map, D.S. (A), 55)'.
No surface remains visible of medieval church in St. Fintan's graveyard in Doon. A church is depicted standing in NE quadrant of graveyard on first edition Ordnance Survey six-inch map. The church was levelled after this date and is annotated as 'Church (Site of) on the revised 1927 ed. OS 6-inch map.
Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien
Date of upload: 31 October 2018
Fintan, son of Pipan, founded the church at Doon South around 580 AD; it was dedicated to St Fintan and associated with the ancient site of Dun Bleisc. The church is historically significant as an early Christian foundation in the region.
The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.
- What survives
- Recorded monument
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