placenamesColumbkille
Cill Cholm Cille
A painter’s home ground and a pair of estate lodges connect art with the parish’s surviving architecture.
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 Cholm Cille · Irish · main form · validated name
- Columbkille · English · main form
Place & story
Painting the world around Kilmurry
Mildred Anne Butler was born and raised at Kilmurry House, which stood within Columbkille parish. The National Gallery’s research identifies the surrounding estate as a recurring source for her watercolours of gardens, cattle and birds. She sketched outdoors and also used stuffed birds as models. Her painting The Lilac Phlox, Kilmurry, County Kilkenny, dated 1912, makes the locality explicit in its title. This was a sustained working connection with her home landscape, rather than a brief visit by an artist. [2] [3]
Two small houses at the estate entrance
A pair of gate lodges associated with Kilmurry House dates to about 1825. Each has a low slate roof and a recessed entrance framed by Doric columns. Rubble stone walls contrast with more finely cut limestone around the doors and eaves. The survey recorded sash windows at the eastern lodge and replacement casements at the western one. Together with their boundary walls and ornamental ironwork, the buildings preserve the architectural treatment of an estate approach. [4]
Geographic information
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Columbkille. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Mildred Anne Butler: At Home in Nature, exhibition research and announcement, 2024 · National Gallery of Ireland; curator Niamh MacNally
- Collumbkill, A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 1837 · Samuel Lewis
- Kilmurry House pair of gate lodges, record12402848 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-01-10. How this page was prepared.