placenamesAghowle
Achadh Abhall
Surviving door and window details sit alongside substantial changes to the medieval building.
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
- Achadh Abhall · Irish · main form
- Aghowle · English · main form
Place & story
Medieval walls and carved openings
The Office of Public Works identifies Aghowle Church in Aghowle Lower, County Wicklow, as a twelfth-century Hiberno-Romanesque building. Its north, east and west walls survive. A flat-headed granite entrance in the west wall has moulded decoration outside and a round arch inside. Two round-headed windows pierce the eastern gable; the bases associated with one window bear carved faces resembling dogs. [2]
Alteration and repair
Much of the south wall was removed before 1839, its material used for a cross wall enclosing a family burial place at the western end. Later conservation also changed the ruin. In 1887 the Board of Works removed extensive ivy and buttressed the corner where the eastern gable meets the north wall. The surviving church therefore records both medieval craftsmanship and subsequent burial and repair work. [2]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Civil parish
- County
- Wicklow
- Barony
- Shillelagh
- Coordinates
- 52.76872, -6.61503
- Mapped area
- 33.47 km²
- Logainm ID
- 2665 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Aghowle. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Aghowle Church: national monument account · Office of Public Works, Heritage Ireland
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2021-10-29. How this page was prepared.