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Fortified Ireland

Writer's picture: Hugh MacMahonHugh MacMahon




A visitor to Aghaviller in Kilkenny wrote, ‘I can safely say this was one of the most interesting places I've visited’.

I could see what he was talking about. There is plenty to explore – a shortened round tower with (unusual) two doors and the impressive remains of a fortified church.  You can even get inside and use an original staircase to climb to the roof of the ‘church’.  

Unfortunately few personalities are associated with it who would bring it to life. It began as a monastery under the patronage of St Brendan of Birr (Brendan the Elder). He was one of the ‘Twelve Apostles of Ireland’ who studied at Clonard in the 6th century but he probably did not live at Aghaviller himself.  In the Annals an abbot, Caroc, is recorded as dying there in 896. The monastery flourished and the round tower, a sign of development, was added in the 9th century.  

After the Normans arrived Aghaviller  was reduced to a parish church and in the  15th century it was ’fortified’ by building a tower house over part of it.

I had come across such fortified churches previously but associated them with the Norman-introduced Knights Hospitaller such as at Tully and Mainham in Kildare. There they were at the edges of the Pale to help defend the Norman-controlled area west of Dublin. They were more castle than church but the Aghaviller tower was obviously added later.   

I discovered there are a number of such ‘independent’ fortified churches around the country that were not part of a defensive system. They served the local (Norman) elite as a refuge to which they could retreat from the ‘wild Irish’ and where they could store valuables.

It is worth going to Aghaviller (Áth an Bhiolair,'Field of the  Water Cress’) for ‘a day out’. It is just beside Castlemorris Demesne where the forest walks are open to the public. There is a ‘St Brendan’s Well’ in the woods but despite asking some walkers if they had come across it, they did not even know a St Brendan.  If you want to find it, I think it is in the area to the right of the ‘fortified church’. 

Maybe it is not the ‘most interesting place I have visited’ but there is plenty to explore.

 

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