Ordnance Survey Letters by John O'Donovan and Eugene Curry, 1839

Parish of Kilballyowen (a)

                                                                                                                   Kildisert,
                                                                                                                  11th November 1839.

Dear Sir,
The Parish of Kilballyowen in the south-western extremity of the Barony of Moyarta and of the Co. of Clare is bounded on the north and west by the Atlantic Ocean; on the south by the River Shannon and on the east by the Parish of Moyarta. See Name Book.

The name of this Parish is formed of Kill, a Church, and Ballyowen, i.e., the Town of Owen; hence Kilballyowen. There is no Patron Day remembered in the Parish. The ruined Church of Kilballyowen measures seventy six feet six inches in length and twenty one feet in breadth, the walls in good preservation, two feet eight inches thick and ten feet high. The west gable has a broken-topped belfry and a quadrangular window at the height of seven feet from the ground outside, measuring three feet seven inches in height and two feet four inches in breadth on the inside; one foot nine and a half inches in height and six inches in breadth on the outside. There is a pointed doorway, with its sides broken, twenty four feet six inches from the west gable, in the south side, measuring six feet eight inches in height on the inside and six feet on the outside. At the distance of eight feet ten inches from this, in the same side, is a quadrangular window measuring four feet ten inches in height and four feet in breadth on the inside, three feet in height and six inches in breadth on the outside. At the distance of fifteen feet four inches from this, in the same side and near the east gable, is another window measuring six feet in height and four feet six inches in breadth on the inside, where it is quadrangular at top and four feet two and a half inches in height and seven inches in breadth on the outside, where the top is also quadrangular. The window in the east gable is bluntly pointed at top, inside, where it measures seven feet six inches in height and four feet six inches in breadth and quadrangular on the outside, where it measures four and a half feet in height and six inches in breadth. There is not a cut stone in the whole building. A large burying ground here.

There is a small ruined Church in the Townland of Ross called Teampall-an-Naonmhar-Naomh, i.e., Church of the Nine Saints. Of this edifice the west gable and side walls remain and four feet of the under part of the east gable. It measures thirty four feet four inches in length and fifteen and a half feet in breadth. At the distance of nine feet three inches from the west gable, on (in) the south side, is a pointed doorway with the sides destroyed and measuring six feet in height on the inside and five and a half feet on the outside. At the distance of ten and a half feet from this, in the same side, is a quadrangular window three feet eight inches high and three feet wide inside, two feet eight inches in height and four inches in breadth at top, and six inches at bottom on the outside. The walls are two and a half feet thick and about ten feet high and there is not a cut or chiselled stone in the whole. At the distance of twenty four feet south from the ruin is what the peasantry call the Grave of the Nine Saints, measuring thirty three feet in length from north to south, seven feet nine inches in breadth and two feet in height, the sides built up of loose stones after the ordinary manner of graves. There is an old burying ground not much frequented in the Townland of Kilbeaha and another of the same character in the Townland of Kilcluither.