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

Parish of Moyarta (a)

The Parish of Moyarta, in the south side of the Barony of Moyarta, Co. of Clare, is bounded on the north by the Parish of Kilfeeragh, west by the Atlantic Ocean, south by the River Shannon and Kilballyowen Parish and on the east by the Parish of Kilrush. See Name Book.

The name of this Parish is not of ecclesiastical origin. In the original Irish it is called Magh-Fearta, i.e., the Plain of the Graves, but whether those graves were of Pagans or of Christians we have not been able to ascertain. There is a very popular burying ground in the Townland of Moyfearta, although there is a tradition that there was never a Church there, and the old inhabitants assert that the place on the south side of the graveyard, said to be the site of the church, was the site of a cow-house belonging to the Mac Donnells formerly, some of whom, and of the O’Kanes, are buried in that spot.

There are two ruined Churches in the Townland of Kilcradaun the most northerly of which is called Teampall Shearlais, from Charles Mac Donnell, Esq., having been buried in it. The walls are in good preservation and the edifice measures twenty three feet four inches in length and sixteen feet in breadth. The doorway was in the west gable, but all its features are now destroyed. There is a broken belfry at top. There is a quadrangular window in the south side five feet from the east gable, measuring four feet in height and two feet three inches in breadth on the inside, three feet four inches high and five inches wide on the outside. The window in the east is semi-circular and built of cut brown grit-stone through and through, measuring five feet nine inches in height and two feet ten inches in breadth on the inside, two feet ten inches high and nine inches wide on the outside, the arch here formed out of one stone. The walls are about twelve feet high and two and a half thick, built of very large stones intermixed with small ones, and all looking very ancient. There is a deserted burying ground attached.

About a furlong to the south of the latter stands the other Church, called Teampall-an-Aird, i.e., the Church of the Height, from its situation on the ridge of the little headland of Kilcradane. It measures twenty three feet six inches in length and eleven feet six inches in breadth, the walls remaining in good preservation. The doorway was in the south side, but is now quite featureless. There is a broken window in the same side near the east gable. There is a quadrangular window in the east gable, measuring four feet four inches in height and three feet ten inches in breadth on the inside, two feet four inches in height and eight inches in breadth on the outside. This appears to be a very modern Church, no burying ground.