Kilbarron Abbey (in ruins) — Kilbarron

Situated on a NW-facing slope of rising ground overlooking the shores of Lough Derg to the W. Kilbarron well (TN009-002----) lies 117m to the NW. The castle (TN009-001001-) and bawn (TN009-001002-) of Castletown stands 780m to the NNW. Ballycolliton Castle (TN009-042---) stands 2.8km to the SSE. The church and townland in the diocese of Killaloe, are named after Bairrfhionn [fair headed], a sixth century saint, whose feast-day falls on the 21st of May. According to local tradition 'Kilbarron Abbey' was built on the site of a monastery founded by St. Bairrfhionn, but 'Dr. Gleeson had found no historical evidence of a monastery here' (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 365). In 1302 the medieval parish church of 'Kilbarrayn' (Kilbarron) with vicarage was valued at 3 marks per annum in the ecclesiastical taxation of the Diocese of Killaloe (Cal. doc. Ire., vol. 5, 302). In 1463, a papal letter mentions the presence of Thomas O’Cormacan parish vicar of ‘Cyllwarayn’ [Kilbarron] (Cal. papal letters 1463, 176). In 1501, a papal letter was sent 'To the prior of the monastery, usually governed by a prior, of Fons vivus, Lora [Lorrha], d[iocese]. Killaloe, and Cormac Oheyga, canon of the church of Emly, and the official of Killaloe'. This letter was a 'mandate in favour of Edmund Okynayth [O'Kennedy], cleric, d. Killaloe (who, as he asserts, notwithstanding a defect of birth as the son of a priest and an unmarried woman, has been marked with clerical character, otherwise however duly). The pope has learned that the perpetual vicarage of the parish church of Cyllbarrayn [Kilbarron], d. Killaloe, is vacant at present and has been vacant for so long that by the Lateran statutes its collation has lawfully devolved on the apostolic see, although Aulanus Okennedy, who bears himself as a cleric, has detained it without canonical title, for more than a year, but short of a three-year period, as he still does. He hereby commands that the above three (or two or one of them), if, having summoned Aulanus and others concerned, they find the vicarage, whose annual value does not exceed 14 marks sterling, to be vacant (howsoever etc.), shall collate and assign it, with all rights and appurtenances, to Edmund, inducting him etc., having removed Aulanus and any other unlawful detainer and causing Edmund (or his proctor) to be admitted to the vicarage and its fruits etc., rights and obventions to be delivered to him' (Cal. papal letters 19 March 1501). In 1615 the Royal Visitation of the Diocese of Killaloe recorded the following details about the Rectory of Kilbarron; 'Rectoria de Kilborrin. Impropriata ad monasterium de Owney. Sr Edmund Walsh. Ecclesia et cancella in ruin. Vicaria ibidem Geraldus Fitzgerald in arte Buccalaureus. Decanus inservit. Valoris 5 libri' (Murphy and Ormond 1914, 220). From these details we see that the fabric of the church and chancel are described as being in a ruinous condition. The impropriation of the rectory belongs to the Cistercian Abbey of Owney [Abington, Co. Limerick LI014-014002-]. The rectory is under the lay patronage of Sir Edmund Walsh of Abington who died in 1618. The vicar of Kilbarron is Gerald Fitzgerald, and the value of the vicarage is worth £5. The 1654-56 Civil Survey of Tipperary recorded the following details about Kilbarron parish and its patronage; 'The sd Parish lying and being in the Barrony of Lower Ormond. The rectory thereof being parcell of Commandery of Anny in the County of Lymericke and two thirds of the tythes both great and smale of the sd parish many yeares sithence were granted to the Earle of Corke by Letters Pattents from the Crowne (as wee are informed) and the viccarage being one third a viccarage collative by the Bishop of Killaloe. The Tythes both great and smale of ye sd Parish was worth in 1640 £30. Two p[ar]ts thereof being impropriat and the other third p[ar]t belonging to the Viccar. In the sd Parish of Kilbarrane is one plantation acre & a halfe of Gleabland belonging to the Viccarage valued in the yeare 1640 at 6 s[hillings]. The sd acre & a halfe of gleabland being a little distant from the Church of Kilbarane on the south side, situated, lying and being in the fower pl[owlan]ds of Castletowne, and is fenced round with a ditch It is at pr[e]sent wast' (Simington 1934, 305-6). Church ruins depicted on the 1654 Down Survey map of Killbarron parish (NLI MS 721). Medieval parish church ruins described in 1840 as follows; 'This Parish is called in Irish Cill Barráin, which signifies the Church of St. Barron. See Kilbarron Parish in the Co. of Donegal near Ballyshannon. The old Church of this Parish is situated on low ground about twenty perches from the east bank of the Shannon. It had nave and choir and a square tower at the west end, but this tower is now destroyed except a fragment of the height of the side walls. The nave measures on the inside thirty four feet six inches [10.5m] in length and twenty four feet [7.3m] in breadth and the choir twenty nine feet [8.8m] in length and twenty one feet eight inches [6.6m]in breadth. The east window is disfigured on the inside but in tolerable preservation on the outside, where it is pointed and constructed of cut limestone and measures five feet one inch [1.55m] in height and seven inches [0.17m] in width. At the distance of five feet seven inches [1.7m] from the east gable the south wall contained a small window which is now totally disfigured on the inside and nearly so on the outside, its east side and the stone in which its pointed top was (is) formed only remaining; it was constructed of cut limestone and it can be ascertained from what remains that it was three feet ten inches [1.16m] in height and ten inches [0.25m] in width. The choir arch was pointed and constructed of cut, limestone, but its southern half is-now totally disfigured; it was eleven feet [3.35m] in height, but its width cannot now be easily determined. At the distance of five feet [1.5m] from the middle gable, the south wall of the nave contains a rectangular window measuring on the inside five feet [1.5m] in height and two feet five inches [0.73m] in width, but it is entirely disfigured on the outside. It is constructed of hammered limestone on the inside. At the distance of seven feet eight inches [2.33m] from this there is, on the same wall, another window of similar form and dimensions on the inside, but its form cannot be seen on the outside as it is filled and entirely covered with the roots and leaves of strong luxuriant ivy. It is constructed of brown sand stone chiselled, but the stones are displaced by the roots of the ivy. The north wall has another window placed at the distance of five feet [1.5m] from the middle gable; it is rectangular on the inside where it measures six feet two inches [1.88m] in height and two feet four inches [0.7m] in width and round topped on the outside, where it is three feet, five and a half inches [1.05m] in height and six and a half inches [0.15m] in width. The tower at the west end is nine feet four inches [2.85m] by twenty four feet [7.3m]. Its first floor rested on a stone arch which is now nearly destroyed but no idea can be formed of its original height from what remains. This tower communicates with the nave of the Church by a pointed doorway, measuring five feet seven inches [1.7m] in height and three feet five inches [1.04m] in width. The doorway of the nave must have been on the north wall near the west end, where there is now a breach. The sidewalls of this Church are three feet thick [0.9m] and about twelve feet [3.65m] high and built of lime stones of a good size (now quarried) cemented with lime and sand mortar. There is a large graveyard now much in use attached to this Church' (O'Flanagan 1930, vol. 2, 21-2). Church ruins described in 1943 as the; ‘Ruin consists of choir 30 feet [9.15m] x 21 feet [6.4m] approx. and nave 33’ [10m] x 24 feet [7.3m] approx. At west end is base of a rectangular tow