Church, Kilbarrahan, Co. Cork

Co. Cork |

Churches & Chapels

Church, Kilbarrahan, Co. Cork

Beneath a sloping pasture field in Kilbarrahan, north County Cork, there is an early church site that has left no mark whatsoever on the surface.

No walls, no outline, no scatter of dressed stone. The ground offers nothing to the eye, which is precisely what makes the place worth pausing over.

In 1934, a researcher named Bowman recorded two features here: an early church site and an associated burial ground, the latter enclosed by a circular earthen fence. That enclosure, a modest raised boundary of the kind often surrounding early medieval ecclesiastical settlements in Ireland, was subsequently levelled, and the entire field, church site included, was given over to the plough. By the time the site was formally documented in the late twentieth century, the description had already been reduced to a negative: no surface trace of church. The burial ground is catalogued separately, but the church itself exists now only as a co-ordinate and a historical footnote, absorbed into ordinary farmland on a gentle south-facing slope.

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, Kilbarrahan, 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