Ecclesiastical enclosure in Brigown — Report the wrong picture

What is recorded here

Brigown is an ecclesiastical enclosure where a church, graveyard, holy well and lost round tower still mark the field southeast of Mitchelstown. St Finnchu may have received land there for a monastery, while St Abban is said to have blessed the place and left behind an office of the church. Low earthworks at the graveyard’s edge hint that a wider sacred boundary once shaped the pasture, perhaps enclosing prayer, memory and daily life before the land forgot its own shape.

In pasture, to SW of road and c. 600m to SE of Mitchelstown. Remains comprise of church (14400), graveyard (14549), holy well (13951) and site of round tower (13906). Low earthworks visible in field to S and W of graveyard (pers. comm. J. Monk) may relate to early ecclesiastical enclosure. According to the ''Life'' of St Finnchu, 'preserved in the Book of Lismore... Finnchu, under the popular name of Fanachan...obtained a grant of land for a monastery at Fan Muilt...the present Brigown or Mitchelstown' (Power 1932, 24-5) and also that St Abban blessed Brigown and 'left an office of the church' there (ibid., 82). 'Colgan, in his Acta Sanctorum [compiled by John Colgan, 1645], says that Brigown was an Episcopal See, and that St. Finnchan was, in the sixth century, a bishop there' (Moore 1889, 221). The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 4: North Cork' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2000). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 14 January 2009

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