Church, Killamurren, Co. Cork

Co. Cork |

Churches & Chapels

Church, Killamurren, Co. Cork

Beneath the farmyard at Killamurren in County Cork, a small early church once stood inside a roughly circular enclosure about the size of half an acre.

The place-name preserves what the ground no longer shows: Cill Atha Muirín, meaning the Church of Muirin's Ford, a dedication that implies both a named saint or figure and a crossing point that mattered enough to anchor a community around it. By the time the relevant Ordnance Survey six-inch map was drawn in 1935, the enclosure was still legible in the landscape, its sub-circular outline running approximately seventy metres north to south and sixty metres east to west. Farm buildings have since removed most of it.

When the antiquarian P. Power visited and wrote about the site in 1923, the physical evidence was considerably more legible. He recorded the foundations of a small church, measuring twenty-seven feet by fifteen feet, still distinctly traceable within the enclosure. To its south he noted a bullán stone and traces of further buildings. A bullán is a rounded stone, often granite, bearing one or more cup-shaped hollows worn or worked into its surface; such stones are commonly associated with early ecclesiastical sites across Ireland, where they may have served ritual, grinding, or curative functions. By the time the site was formally assessed for the Archaeological Inventory of County Cork in the early 1990s, neither the bullán nor any of the associated structures could be found. The church foundations had vanished too, absorbed into the working farm that now occupies the ground.

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 Church, Killamurren, Co. Cork. 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