Shillelagh Church (Aghowle)

Rubble and dressed granite-built wall enclosing the grounds of a church and graveyard, constructed in 1834 but with main gate screen replaced in c.1930. To the south-east the wall is in rubble stone and acts purely as a retaining wall, however as the road level rises to the north and west its composition changes to squared granite rubble whilst the function changes to that of enclosure. Set between these two distinct sections of the wall is a Gothic style pedestrian gate screen in dressed granite, with tall piers rising to pinnacles, and a wrought-iron gate. Behind this screen, either side of the actual gate, are short retaining walls, each with a pointed arch doorway. The main carriage gate screen to the west echoes the style of the previous on a larger scale and with an outer set of smaller piers. A small panel above the gate itself tells us that the arch was erected ‘by public subscription to the memory of J.G. King Brewster M.B.’.

This well maintained stretch of walling is one of Shillelagh’s most memorable structures, its distinctive Gothic gate screens repeating the style of the associated, and equally distinctive, church.