placenamesCastledillon
Díseart Iollan
The Kildare parish preserves a faint church landscape, while archaeological finds near its lost castle require careful interpretation.
The name
A reliable full-name meaning has not been established here. The recorded Irish and English forms are given without an unsupported translation.
Recorded forms
- Díseart Iollan · Irish · main form
- Castledillon · English · main form
Place & story
Foundations in the grass
At Castledillon Upper, the National Monuments Service records grass-covered foundations outlining a church about twenty-five metres long, divided into probable nave and chancel. A surrounding bank defines a possible earlier ecclesiastical enclosure. The surviving Spellicy headstone dates from 1758. Small uninscribed stones south of the church suggest a children’s burial ground, although that identification remains tentative. [2] [3]
The Castledillon Stone
An effigial limestone slab formerly lay at this church site. The archaeological record dates the Castledillon Stone to the thirteenth century and records its removal to the Market House in Kildare town. The record does not identify the commemorated individual. [4]
Pottery beside the lost castle
Monitoring in 2001, about seventy metres northeast of the castle site in Castledillon Lower, recovered medieval and later pottery from imported fill. The National Monuments Service records the excavator’s caution that its origin in the castle could not be proved. No undisturbed archaeological deposits were identified in the monitored ground. [5]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Civil parish
- County
- Kildare
- Barony
- Salt South
- Coordinates
- 53.30664, -6.57792
- Mapped area
- 4.44 km²
- Logainm ID
- 1156 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Castledillon. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Castledillon Upper church, KD014-016---- · Gearóid Conroy, Archaeological Survey of Ireland, National Monuments Service;10 June2011
- Castledillon Upper graveyard, KD014-016001- · Gearóid Conroy, Archaeological Survey of Ireland, National Monuments Service;10 June2011
- Castledillon Stone original location, KD014-016002- · Gearóid Conroy, Archaeological Survey of Ireland, National Monuments Service;10 June2011
- Castledillon Lower castle, KD014-015---- · Gearóid Conroy, Archaeological Survey of Ireland, National Monuments Service;10 June2011
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2021-10-29. How this page was prepared.