What is recorded here

Kilbraghan means the church of St. Braghan, and local memory places that church at the crossroads where the road to Graigue bends away. The road may still follow the northern edge of a wide sacred circle, even though the church, graveyard and enclosure have disappeared. Men tilling the field at the start of the nineteenth century broke into coffins and scattered bones, turning a forgotten holy ground into a warning about how quickly roads and ploughs can erase what devotion once kept separate.

According to Holahan (1883, 107), 'There was formerly a graveyard [KK022-011002-] in Kilbrahan. Its site is still pointed out at the cross-roads, in a field, at the left, as one approaches the village from Graigue. When the field was tilled at the beginning of this [19th] century, portions of coffins and human bones were found there. According to local tradition, there was a church [KK022-011001-] here also; but no traces of it now remain. The church was dedicated to St. Braghan, from whom the place derives its name. His feast is set down in the Martyrology of Donegal on the 17th of September'. Carrigan (1905, vol. 3, 442) notes that, 'St. Brachan's church at Kilbraghan cross, at the exact point where the public road branches off to Graigue...was thrown down, and the graveyard destroyed, many years ago, when this road was being constructed. It is said that there was a monastery here in ancient times'. The curving of the Graigue road may follow the N arc of an ecclesiastical enclosure (diam. c. 90-100m) (Swan 1987 unpublished notes). There is no visible trace of the enclosure to the E-S-SW. Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 17 May 2021

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.