What is recorded here

Ecclesiastical enclosure in Kilteel Upper, County Kildare, Ireland: Rectilinear medieval earthworks, likely the Knights Hospitaller preceptory, occupy a 350 by 300 m valley floor where a now-dry stream once flowed. The earlier monastery leaves no obvious trace beneath them. Both sets of banks rise from pasture still marked in aerial photographs taken in 1963 and 1966.

Visible on aerial photographs taken in 1963 (CUCAP AIG064) and 1966 (CUCAP APA056/API002). Occupying both the moderately steep, SE-facing, pasture slope of a minor valley and the level valley floor, through which a small stream (now dried up) flowed SW, and overlooked by slightly higher ground WSW-N-NE. A series of low earthen banks and associated shallow fosses extends over a large, roughly rectangular area (est. dims. L c. 350m NW-SE; Wth c. 300m NE-SW) on the site of 'Cell céli críst' (KD020-007002-) an early monastery where a preceptory of Knights Hospitallers of St John of Jerusalem (KD020-007003-) was subsequently founded in the 13th century, and immediately to the S and W of which a section of the Pale Boundary runs (KD020-008----). While the existence of an enclosure around the early monastery is to be expected, there is no obvious visible surface trace of one, the visible earthworks being mainly rectilinear in outline and probably the result of the very extensive medieval activity on the site; including a large rectangular enclosure which is presumably associated with the preceptory. (Manning 1982, 213, 219) Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy Date of upload: 10 June 2011

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