Ecclesiastical enclosure, Killaloonty, Co. Galway

Co. Galway |

Ecclesiastical Sites

Ecclesiastical enclosure, Killaloonty, Co. Galway

In a flat stretch of Co. Galway pastureland, where the ground softens westward into bogland, there survives the faint outline of an early ecclesiastical enclosure.

It is not the kind of site that announces itself. What remains at Killaloonty is largely a matter of subtle earthworks, the sort of thing that rewards careful looking rather than a casual glance across the field.

The enclosure is roughly circular, measuring about 65 metres across, and was originally defined by at least two concentric boundaries: an inner raised bank, a fosse between them, and possibly an outer bank beyond that. A fosse, in this context, is simply a ditch or trench dug as part of a defensive or boundary arrangement. At Killaloonty the fosse is wide and flat-bottomed and is the best-preserved element of the whole ensemble, surviving from the eastern side around through south to north-north-west. The inner bank, by contrast, stands only around 0.3 metres high and is legible only in fragments at the south-east, west, and north-west. In the south-eastern quadrant of the interior sits a children's burial ground, a type of site known in Irish as a cillín, traditionally used for the interment of unbaptised infants and others excluded from consecrated ground. Within that burial ground, two short runs of parallel wall foundations, each no more than 2.6 metres long and oriented on a north-west to south-east axis, suggest the ghost of an earlier structure, possibly the remains of a small chapel or oratory, though too little survives to say with any certainty what it once was.

The enclosure itself belongs to a pattern well recognised across early medieval Ireland, where ecclesiastical sites were marked out by one or more concentric earthen boundaries, often reusing or adapting earlier forms. At Killaloonty those boundaries have been softened almost to nothing by centuries of agricultural use, leaving a site that is more legible on paper than on the ground, but no less interesting for that.

Rated 0 out of 5

Visitor Notes

Review type for post source and places source type not found
Added by
Picture of Pete F
Pete F
IrishHistory.com is passionate about helping people discover and connect with the rich stories of their local communities.
Please use the form below to submit any photos you may have of Ecclesiastical enclosure, Killaloonty, Co. Galway. We're happy to take any suggested edits you may have too. Please be advised it will take us some time to get to these submissions. Thank you.
Name
Email
Message
Upload images/documents
Maximum file size: 100 MB
If you'd like to add an image or a PDF please do it here.

Advertisement