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

Parish of Kilfenora (f)

About a quarter of a mile west of Kilfenora is the site of Kill-Cathrach Church, of the walls of which fourteen feet only of the south side remain, nine feet high and two feet three inches thick. The extent of the original building may still be traced by the foundation, from which it appears to have been twenty six feet long and fourteen feet six inches broad. There was a burying ground here formerly, of which all appearance has vanished except one uninscribed tombstone, which lies within the Church. No historical reference to this place has come to my hands but the following from the Archdall, and which indeed could scarcely apply to the place at all.

There was an hospital or Monastery here of which we have no further account than that it was endowed with a quarter of land adjoining thereto, which, at the dissolution, was granted to John King. Auditor General’s Office.

Part of the foundation of an old castle remains a little to the north of Kilcarrah, called by the residents of the place by the name of Caislen-an-Mhaga, i.e., the Funny or Foolish Castle, because they say that it was well begun but never raised higher than it is at present. I believe this place has been set down by some writers as the site of an ecclesiastical edifice, with what propriety I know not.

The site of an old Church and burying ground called Cill-Tonachta, lie in the Townland of Ballynacarra.

The site of an old Church and burying ground lie in the Townland of Caherminane and within the Caher. They call this place Cill-Cháinin, at the same time they don’t believe it to have been a Church at all. There is a holy well near this place called after Saint Cainin, at which Stations were formerly performed, but now almost given up.

There is a small portion of the sides of an old castle in the Townland of Fánta, within which is a dwelling house. A heap of ruins and rubbish mark the site of an old castle in the Townland of Caherminane, the Lord of which, Morogh O'Brien, died there in the year 1591, according to the Annals of the Four Masters.

The east side wall of an old Castle stands in the Townland of Ballyshanny.

There is another ruined Castle in the Townland of Tulacha, and another, in tolerable preservation, in the Townland of Toormore, and called the Castle of Inchoveigh.