White Church (in ruins)

On a S-facing slope, with good views to the SW and NE. Described in the OS Letters (1839), as, ‘a little Church …called by the natives Teampall Geal, i.e., White Church, but the farmer on whose farm it stood had just rooted up the last stones of the foundation when we visited the place a few days ago. It measured thirty six feet sixteen [inches?] [11.4m]. There is a small graveyard still in use at this place’ (O’Flanagan 1930, vol. 2, 89-90 (29)). According to Carrigan (1905, vol. 3, 323-4), the church, ‘was dedicated to St. James, the Apostle, (July 25). The east gable is standing to a height of 4ft. [1.2m], but all the other walls have been uprooted from the foundations. It was a small church’. The ruinous church (int. dims. c. 14m E-W x 7m N-S) built of roughly coursed limestone rubble (max. H 1.2m), occupies the SW corner of the graveyard (KK027-038002-). It comprises the wall-footings of the E and W gables and their returns, and the E end of the N wall, all of which are overlain with earth and collapsed masonry. See attached: KK027-038001-_01 E gable KK027-038001-_02 W gable Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 3 April 2023

Built in the early medieval period, likely by a local ecclesiastical community, the White Church (Teampall Geal) is a ruined structure associated with the Irish tradition of white-stone churches, often dedicated to early Christian saints. Its name and style suggest a connection to the broader network of early Irish monastic sites, though specific dedications or builders are not recorded.