What is recorded here

Kilva church vanished into County Cork tillage, leaving only a low stone rectangle and a broken pointed arch near the south end. The site may honour Bheadh, an unknown founder whose name survived after the building forgot him. Grass still covers the floor where people probably prayed, waited for rain or buried their dead before the walls collapsed. What is left is small enough to walk around in a minute, yet large enough to hold every life that no longer has a name.

In level tillage; rectangular area (10.85m E-W; 9.85m N-S) enclosed by low stone wall (H 1.4m; Wth 0.8m); covered in long grass. Door jamb and part of late medieval pointed arch from door surround, lying near S end; probably part of small rectangular church shown on 1842 OS 6-inch map of which there is now no visible trace. Power (1940, 25) gives Kilva as 'Cill Bheadh....a personal name of an otherwise unknown church-founder'. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 2: East and South Cork' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1994). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 14 January 2009

This remains an important historical record, but the official description says the monument is no longer visible or has been destroyed. The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.