placenamesKilchreest
Cill Chríost
Kilchreest’s hilltop church ruin, its later parish church and Woodville’s restored garden preserve different parts of the village’s built 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 Chríost · Irish · main form · validated name
- Kilchreest · English · main form
Place & story
The older church above the road
The old church occupies a mound beside the road between Gort and Loughrea. A firsthand photographic account made by Antonio D’Imperio in June 2015 records two surviving sections of the building: an eastern end with a broad two-light window, and a western section with a narrow window and a bellcote. Grave markers and slabs surround the ruins. The separated ends make the former building’s outline visible within its burial ground. [2]
The parish church of 1841
The Church of the Nativity was built under Father Michael Burke in 1841, replacing an earlier chapel that had also served as a school. The diocesan account records successive changes: a new roof and belfry around 1881, improvements under Father Francis Cassidy between 1884 and 1893, and six leaded windows installed in 1941. Cassidy’s work included a marble and Caen stone altar, adding an elaborate furnishing to the earlier church. [3]
Woodville’s garden restored
At nearby Woodville, restoration between 2005 and 2009 recovered the structure of an eighteenth-century walled garden. The owners’ account describes repairing and capping the walls with lime mortar, rebuilding the entrance arch around its dated 1750 keystone, locating old paths and restoring the dovecote. Garden designer Daphne Shackleton advised on the work. Replanting the rose garden and borders returned cultivated spaces to an enclosure whose walls and paths had first needed to be recovered. [4]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Galway
- Barony
- Dunkellin
- Civil parish
- Kilchreest
- Within
- Kilchreest
- Coordinates
- 53.17468, -8.65810 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 1413584 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Kilchreest. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Kilchreest Church: field visit22June2015 · Antonio D’Imperio, Irish Stones
- Church of the Nativity, Kilchreest · Dioceses of Clonfert and Galway, Kilmacduagh and Kilfenora
- Woodville Walled Garden: History · Woodville Walled Garden
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2012-01-11. How this page was prepared.