placenamesKilmalkedar
Cill Maoilchéadair
The medieval church and nineteenth-century fishing records reveal different parts of this Dingle peninsula parish’s history.
The name
These Irish name elements are associated with this record in the Logainm glossary.
An element’s translation is a clue, rather than a complete explanation of the name. Its form and meaning depend on local history and the full Irish name.
Recorded forms
- Cill Maoilchéadair · Irish · main form · validated name
- Kilmalkedar · English · main form
Place & story
The Romanesque church
The Office of Public Works describes Kilmalkedar’s church as a Romanesque building with a nave and chancel. Its sandstone walls carry projecting carved animal heads near the eaves. The round-headed western doorway combines green and red stone, with further animal heads at the ends of its outer moulding. A stone sundial in the graveyard used the shadow of a projecting rod to mark time. [2]
Fishing and farming in 1837
Samuel Lewis described inhabitants of the parish working in the Smerwick Harbour fishery, with salmon caught at the mouth of the Moorstown River. He also linked agricultural improvement to better roads and the availability of manure from the sea. These observations concern the wider historical parish, rather than the church enclosure alone. [3]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Civil parish
- County
- Kerry
- Barony
- Corkaguiny
- Coordinates
- 52.18260, -10.34356 (approximate)
- Mapped area
- 23.93 km²
- Logainm ID
- 1100 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Kilmalkedar. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Kilmalkedar Church · Office of Public Works, Heritage Ireland
- Kilmelchedor — A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1837) · Samuel Lewis
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-01-10. How this page was prepared.