Ecclesiastical enclosure in Kiltiernan East, County Galway

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In low-lying pastureland. This roughly circular enclosure (diam. c. 140m) is defined by a double-faced, now much-collapsed, grass-covered drystone wall (H 0.3-1m; Wth 1.5-2.5m). A later field wall has been built on top it, apart from the W to N sector. There is a stone-lined entrance gap (Wth 1.9m) at SE. The interior is divided into 15 or 16 sub-divisions by a series of radial walls which survive as grass-covered mounds (H 0.3m); up to ten house sites (see GA103-139005, GA103-139006- and GA103-139007-) can be traced on the ground (Waddell and Clyne 1995, 149). Just to the E of centre is a church (GA103-139001-). It lies in the SW half of a roughly square enclosure (c. 30m N-S; c. 30m E-W) which is also defined by a collapsed wall. This enclosure delimits an earlier graveyard (GA103-139004-). There is Man-made underground passage in the W sector. A series of excavations were carried out in and around the church by Duignan in 1950, 1951 and 1953 (Duignan 1951, 73-5; Waddell and Clyne ibid.). Duignan (ibid., 73) choose Kiltiernan for excavation because he had noted that there was no ‘modern cemetery … no signs of medieval or later building’ and the original lay-out appeared to be ‘unusually well preserved for a mainland monastery’. (Westropp 1919, 178; McCaffrey 1952, 80, 82-3, 198, no. 63; Norman and St Joseph 1969, 13, 102, fig. 57) Compiled by: Olive Alcock Date of upload: 8 February 2018 This monument was taken into Guardianship under the National Monuments Acts 1930 to 2014 - National Monument 446.

From the National Monuments Service (Archaeological Survey of Ireland) record GA103-139002

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