Killagha, Kerry

I Location

Site Location: Killagha
National Grid Reference: 21Q 82 01
County: Kerry
Dedication: St Colman, Our Blessed Lady
Type of building/monument: church (ruin), former Augustinian Abbey, on site of early monastery

II General Description

13thc. church with a single long nave, and some 15thc. details. Romanesque fragments have been re-used in the internal masonry of the W doorway.

IV Interior Features

5. Interior Decoration

c. Miscellaneous

(i) Fragment

: W doorway, S jamb, stone with zigzag

Stone with zigzag (10 rows?), shallow carved, set in S jamb.

Dimensions

h.	0.15 m
w.	0.58 m
d.	0.20 m

(ii) Fragment

: W doorway, N jamb, two carved stones

Chequered and striped stone, set near top of N jamb.

Dimensions

h.	0.23 m
w.	0.29 m

(iii) Fragment

Diapered stone, set near bottom of N jamb.

Dimensions

h.	0.14 m
w.	0.38 m

VII History

The Abbey was erected on the site of an older monastery of St Colman some time after 1216 by Geoffrey de Marisco for the Canons Regular of St Augustine. The Abbey was suppressed in 1576.

VIII Comments/Opinions

Carmody (1906) describes the W doorway as having jambstones 'torn out and removed'. The carved fragments are clearly re-used in their present position, and are shallow carved and crude.

IX Bibliography

Carmody, Rev. J., ‘The Abbey of Killagha’, JRSAI, 36, 1906, 285-96.
P. Harbison, , Guide to the National and Historic Monuments of Ireland, 1970, 116; 1992, 181.
Gwynn, A. and Hadcock, R.N., Medieval Religious Houses, Ireland,London, 1970, 182.
H. G. Leask, Irish Churches and Monastic Buildings, 1960, III, 124.