St. Brigids Church — Castleknock (without Phoenix Park)

St. Brigid's Church of Ireland church (built c. 1806) standing in the centre of a graveyard in the village of Castleknock stands on the site of a medieval priory church associated with the Benedictine Priory of Little Malvern, Worcestershire, England (Ball 1920, 33).  The priory church was dedicated to Saint Brigid.  St Bridget’s holy well (DU017-009----) stands 55m to the SSE of the church.  The Anglo-Norman masonry castle (DU017-012002-) built by Richard Tyrrel c. 1185 stands on a motte-and-bailey (DU017-012001-) 670m to the SSW of the church site.  Listed in the Dublin SMR (1988) as Church ‘Site of’ where it was assigned the SMR Number DU017-008---.  Listed in the Dublin RMP (1998) as Church ‘Site of’ where it was assigned the RMP No. DU017-00801.  The enclosing graveyard was listed in the 1998 RMP as DU017-00802-.  It is not clear if the 19th-century church incorporates fabric from the medieval priory church or whether the medieval church was levelled completely and replaced by the present building in the early 19th-century.  The medieval church consisted of a western battlemented bell-tower with nave and chancel church with a north and southern aisles attached to the chancel.  In the post-reformation period the chancel and its aisles were abandoned and the nave was reused as the chancel of the church with attached western tower.  In the early 19th-century the medieval church was replaced by the present church that was described by the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (NIAH) as a; ‘Detached Church of Ireland church, built 1806, with three-stage tower to west gable. Flanking side aisles added c.1860, comprising three-bay side elevations with gabled terminating bays to east forming transepts. Stained glass window dedicated to Saint Hubert by Harry Clarke’ (NIAH Reg. No. 11362003). Ronan (1941, 33; 1940, 184) recorded that Richard Tyrrell ‘granted certain lands of Castleknock (c. 1185) to endow a religious house there in honour of St. Brigid, the patroness of the church. The Benedictines of Little Malvern, Worcestershire, built their cill or priory beside the church and received a grant (1219) from Archbishop de Loundres of certain tithes of Castleknock for the purpose of adding five monks to the priory’. Archbishop de Loundres, built a church in the churchyard for the vicar of the parish, and erected it as a predend in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in 1227 (ibid). The 1615 Royal Visitation of Dublin Diocese recorded that John Rice was the vicar of Castleknock vicarage standing in the Deanery of Taney, with John Ryse then serving as a reading minister, the church and chancel (Ecclesia et cancella) was in good condition with books (Ronan 1941, 33).  The medieval church was described on the 5th of May in 1782 by the antiquarian and artist, Austin Cooper, who wrote in his notebook that the church; ‘here is plain and neat contain[in]g ab[ou]t 14 seats & a small Gallery over the door, the entrance is thro[ugh] a square embattled steeple wherein are a couple of bells terminating with a wooden cupola & a weather cock whereon are the letters G.K.G. – C.W.’ (Price 1942, 68).  The medieval church was described in the 1654-56 Civil Survey of Dublin as ‘the walls of an Olde Church’ (Simington 1945, 242) with the tithes belonging to Sir Robert Meredith by lease from St Patrick’s Cathedral Church (ibid. 241).  The Civil Survey recorded that there was about four ‘Acres of Gleebland in the Church town of Castleknock with three Cottages Belongeinge therto’ (ibid. 250). Depicted on Rocque’s 1760 Map of County Dublin as a T-plan church with southern transept standing in the centre of a square-shaped graveyard.  A painting of the southern side of Castleknock Church by Gabriel Beranger dating from 1771 shows the rendered lime-washed building as consisting of an undivided chancel (original medieval nave?) with western bell-tower with battlemented wall walk (NLI, PD 1958 TX 39). To the east of the chancel there is an un-rendered structure with battlemented wall-walk, twin light ogee-window with hood-moulding above located off centre to the east in the south wall. Two other single light pointed windows visible in the south wall.  Remains of a pointed window in the centre of the east wall, broken wall on north-east corner suggests that it was attached to a larger structure/chancel which was levelled prior to the 1771 painting.  Possible remains of the southern aisle of the medieval chancel. The whitewashed church with three round-headed windows in the southern wall was the original nave of the medieval church that was later reused as the main body of the church when the chancel was abandoned possibly in the post-reformation period.   According to Ball (1920, 36) the medieval church at Castleknock had a chancel of ‘two arched aisles’ one of these was possibly Burnell’s chapel’.   Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien   Date of Compilation: 25 November 2025