placenamesKilchreest
Cill Chríost
The church at Carrowkilla preserves late medieval stonework, while local volunteers helped secure the graveyard’s written record.
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
- Kilchreest · English · main form
Place & story
The church at Carrowkilla
Kilchreest’s roofless church measures about 22 metres by 7.1 metres, with its gables and side walls surviving to full height. The southern entrance has a double holy-water stoup, and a three-light window survives in the eastern gable. Corbels and beam sockets suggest an upper floor at the western end. The monument survey associates the stoup with the later fifteenth century, while noting that the foundation date of the church itself is unrecorded. [2]
Five years recording memorials
In March 2010 Clare County Library reported receiving the results of a five-year transcription project by Ballynacally Irish Countrywomen’s Association volunteers. They recorded gravestones and burial plots at Kilchreest, Clondegad and Killea, together containing more than seven hundred headstones. Heritage Council funding supported the work, and P. J. Carmody of Clare County Council assisted with maps and aerial photographs. The total covers all three graveyards, rather than Kilchreest alone. [3]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Civil parish
- County
- Clare
- Barony
- Clonderalaw
- Coordinates
- 52.72024, -9.08847 (approximate)
- Mapped area
- 46.71 km²
- Logainm ID
- 429 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Kilchreest. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Kilchreest church, CL050-036001-, updated3November2025 · Mary Tunney and Ros Ó Maoldúin, National Monuments Service
- Ballynacally Parish Graveyards Transcription Project,2March2010 · Clare County Library
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2021-10-29. How this page was prepared.