Church, Gleann Loic, Co. Kerry
Co. Kerry |
Churches & Chapels
Some of the most telling entries in Irish ecclesiastical history concern buildings that no longer exist and can no longer be found.
In the townland of Gleann Loic on the Dingle Peninsula, there is said to have been a church known as Cill Tiocháin, a name that preserves, in its first element, the Irish word "cill", referring to an early Christian church or monastic cell. No stone of it remains above ground, and there is nothing on the surface to indicate where it once stood.
What is known comes from local knowledge rather than any physical evidence. According to information attributed to M. Ó Dubhshláine and recorded in J. Cuppage's 1986 archaeological survey of the Corca Dhuibhne region, the church was believed to occupy the north-western corner of the townland. That survey, published under the title "Corca Dhuibhne: Dingle Peninsula Archaeological Survey", remains one of the more thorough attempts to document the archaeology of this Irish-speaking peninsula, and Cill Tiocháin appears in it as a site known only by reputation and placename. The dedication, Tiocháin, may point to an obscure early saint, though no further detail survives to confirm this.
