
What is recorded here
Indicated is a rocky ecclesiastical enclosure in County Clare where a ruined church, graveyard, penitential station and cursing stones still mark a place once given to St. Enda and the living. The fast Owentoberlea stream slides past its western edge like a border drawn in water, while pasture presses close on both sides. People may have come there to pray, fast, curse or bury what they could not carry home, leaving only stones behind.
On a low rocky spur projecting W from higher ridge to NE and skirted to W by a small, fast-flowing stream, within a field system (CL005-108001-). There is improved pasture to N and S. A church (CL005-108003-) and graveyard (CL005-108004-) are indicated and named ‘Killeany Church (in ruins) Graveyard’ on the 1842 and 1916 eds. of the OS 6-inch maps and the stream running along its W side is named ‘Owentoberlea’. The site is reputed to have been founded by St. Enda ‘the evangelizer of Aran’ (Westropp 1900, 108).
An ecclesiastical enclosure (c. 120m E-W; 90m N-S), only traceable from E to SW and at NW, defined by an internally and externally faced wall (Wth c. 1.4m; max. int. H 0.9m; max. ext. H 1m) from E to SE and a bank from SE to SW. There is an entrance gap (Wth 1.7m) at SSW flanked by two large transverse slabs. The stream skirting the site to the W may have delimited it from SW to NW and a modern wall running on the line of a low cliff appears to run on the line of it at N.
A ruined medieval church (CL005-108003-) is in the SE sector. The church is surrounded by a rectangular graveyard (CL005-108004-) that sits over the site of (and removed all trace of) the enclosure from E to SE. A penitential station (CL005-108005-) and cursing stones (CL005-108008-) sit on the approximate line of the enclosure within the E sector of the graveyard. A house of indeterminate date (CL005-108006-) and a kiln (CL005-108007-) are located in the N sector of the enclosure.
Compiled by: Mary Tunney and Ros Ó Maoldúin
Date of upload: 15 March 2023
The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.
- What survives
- Recorded monument
Places near here
Killeany Church in ruinsChurch · 55 yd
CastleCastle, tower house · 468 yd
CahercloggaunFairy fort / stone ringfort · 484 yd
Poll CragreaghCave · 918 yd
Enclosure in Cullaun (burren By.)Enclosure · 1531 yd
Poll ElvaCave · 1726 yd
Site of Lisdoonvarna CastleCastle, tower house · 1.3 mi
Ballyteigue Nature ReserveNature reserve · 1.9 mi
Slieve ElvaMountain / peak · 2.4 mi
Doolin Cave Visitor CentreHeritage attraction · 4.1 miOther information
Photo: Credit not shown in the picture search · Rights wording not checked; contact us if this picture should be removed