placenamesKilrean
Cill Riáin
Kilrean near Glenties combines recorded archaeological sites with a distinctive geological landscape and a trail following a former peat railway.
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 Riáin · Irish · main form · validated name
- Kilrean · English · main form
Place & story
A cluster of recorded monuments
The Record of Monuments and Places lists a substantial group of remains in Kilrean Upper. These include a ringfort with a possible souterrain, and a separate ecclesiastical group comprising a church and graveyard, holy well, bullaun stone, cross-slabs and architectural fragments. The inventory records their presence without establishing the stories later told about them. [2]
Rocks beneath the fields
Geological Survey Ireland's 2019 survey identifies Kilrean Upper as a County Geological Site. Outcrops south of the Ardara–Glenties road expose appinite and associated rocks, including hornblendite dated to about 410 million years ago. The survey highlights the unusual arrangement of different rock types within the intrusion. These exposures lie among grazing land and blanket bog, rather than forming a developed visitor attraction. [3]
A railway reused as a trail
The GAP Trail follows the route of a railway formerly serving a Bord na Móna turf-extraction operation. Donegal County Council's trail leaflet describes a route crossing the Ownea River, meeting the Bluestack Way, and continuing through forestry to Lough McHugh. Developed by the GAP Tourism Association, the approximately 2.8-kilometre trail gives the industrial route a later recreational role within the landscape between Ardara and Glenties. [4]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Donegal
- Barony
- Boylagh
- Civil parish
- Killybegs Lower
- Within
- Ardara
- Within
- Kilrean Upper
- Coordinates
- 54.78440, -8.32644 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 14564 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Kilrean. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Record of Monuments and Places, Donegal: sheet 074 · National Monuments Service, 1996
- Kilrean Appinite: County Geological Site Report · McClure and colleagues, Geological Survey Ireland, 2019
- Slí Dhún na nGall: The Gap Trail · Donegal County Council; GAP Tourism Association
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-01-10. How this page was prepared.