Kilkerran, Lady Chapel

NS30SW 1 3111 0328.

(NS 3111 0326) Lady Chapel (NR)

OS 6" map (1957)

The NSA notes that Lady Chapel (Name Book 1856) dedicated to the Virgin Mary stood near Kilkerran. All traces of it had disappeared by 1856, though the site was well known locally.

NSA 1845 (A Hill)

Kilkerran is for 'Cill Chiarain', Ciaran's church: there are twenty-two saints of that name. (This, in conjunction with NSA and ONB, would imply that there was originally a Celtic church at this site, later replaced by one dedicated to St Mary).

W J Watson 1926

The foundations of this chapel have been revealed by excavation, and show it to have been a sub-rectangular building, 9.2m E-W by 6.4m. The walls, of rough rubble masonry, attain a maximum height of 1.2m at the W end. The course of a possible enclosure wall is traceable around the chapel, and there is a ditch cut in the natural rock on the E side. Near the SW angle of the remains is what appears to be a cross-base. It is a rectangular block of stone, 0.6m x 0.8m x 0.4m high in which is a rectangular socket 0.4m x 0.3m x 0.2m deep. The remains stand on an elevated plot of ground.

Visited by OS (JLD) 4 May 1954

NS 3111 0328. The remains of the chapel are now within an area of afforestation. Neither OS (JLD)'s report nor the published survey can

be verified though what appears to be the central depression at the SE end of the chapel is partially visible.

No information was obtained at Kilkerran Estate Office about the possible destruction of the remains at the time of forestry planting, and the type of excavation mentioned by F1 was not established. No estate maps of 19th century or earlier were available for inspection.

Visited by OS (JRL) 2 August 1977.