| Church Ruins
© Killeen church ruin
According to Westropp the churches of Gleande and Kilcornan were the
same church. The old church in Kilcornan was renamed Kilcornan in 1418.
The ruin of the first church in Kilcornan, St Churnáin's was reputedly
used as part of the Waller vault in Castletown graveyard. John Waller,
a Protestant, built a church in 1828 in Boherbuoy. There were also churches
in Kilbreedy and Mornane. The sites of these churches are now forgotten.
Westropp measured the church in Killeen as 45 feet by 24 feet and in
good condition. Begley in his "History of the Diocese of Limerick"
believed that the church in Monehuryn might be the old name for the church
in Cowpark. This date of the church is unclear as some believe it to date
from the fifteenth century and other accounts date it as around 1611.
This church was used as a place of worship until 1811. Westropp also mentions
the chapel of St Meranus, which he says might be Killeen-Cowpark.
The church was repaired in the 1930s under the direction of Canon Wall.
The stones that formed the window were discovered during this renovation
and replaced. The belfry is also in very good condition.
© Belfry in Killeen church ruin
Local tradition claims that this church was one of three churches that
were built by three sisters but no saint or founder is remembered in the
parish. The other two churches were Cappagh church and Beagh church in
the parish of Askeaton/Ballysteen.
Begley mentioned that there was a chapel in Newtown Hall. However, Westropp
does not mention this church, and we did not come across it on our visit
to the parish.
From the book "Kenry" by Máirtín Ó Corrbuí,
we found a short note that there was a mass house in Boherbwee. This mass
house was at the rear of Kilcornan church. Ó Corrbuí also
mentions a mass house in Stonehall or Ardloman as it was then called.
This house was used until 1828. Near the site of this house there is a
field called "the priest's haggart".
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