Ecclesiastical enclosure, Killola, Co. Galway

Co. Galway |

Ecclesiastical Sites

Ecclesiastical enclosure, Killola, Co. Galway

On a low hillock in the townland of Killola in County Galway, an oval earthen enclosure sits so thoroughly overgrown that no one has been able to survey it properly.

The vegetation is dense enough to defeat measurement, and the best figures available are approximate: roughly 78 metres north to south, 65 metres east to west. That kind of deliberate obscurity, whether natural or accumulated by neglect, tends to settle over places that have been quietly significant for a very long time.

The evidence for what this enclosure once was comes from several converging directions. Within its eastern sector sits a cillín, or children's burial ground, sometimes called a cilliní or CBG, a type of unconsecrated ground traditionally used for the interment of unbaptised infants and others excluded from formal Church burial. These small, often unmarked plots are closely associated with early Christian ecclesiastical sites across Ireland, where a founding settlement would gradually accumulate layers of sacred use over centuries. The size of the enclosure itself is consistent with an early medieval monastic or ecclesiastical foundation, and the townland name Killola likely preserves a form of the Irish word for church, cill, pointing to a religious association reaching back well before any surviving written record. Local tradition adds a further thread: the site is remembered as a place of penal mass, meaning it may have served as an outdoor gathering point for Catholic worship during the Penal Laws era, when public practice of the faith was suppressed and congregations met at informal or semi-secret locations, often places already carrying older sacred resonance. None of these details on its own would be conclusive, but together they suggest a site with a continuous, if largely unrecorded, religious significance across many centuries.

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, Killola, 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