Killeshin Church

PricingFreeFree for all visitors

Free entry for everyone

Entry

Free for everyone

Pricing details

Free for everyone; an open-air monument with no staff, tickets or booking. No membership card is needed.

ParkingNo car park

Arrive on foot, by bike or by public transport.

Parking details

OPW names no car park and none is mapped. Reviewers report room for only one car at the graveyard gate on the narrow L7911 and suggest parking near Holy Cross Church, about 300 m east, and walking up. No bus service is named.

Driving pin: the graveyard's west gate with the information board, 37 m from OPW's own pin on the church.

About

On the slope of the Killeshin hills west of Carlow town, the ruined church of the early monastery of Gleann-Uisean, founded by St Comghán before 500, keeps a western doorway widely regarded as one of the finest pieces of Romanesque art in Ireland. Its four receding arches are richly carved, the second with animals and birds, the keystone of the outer arch with a human head whose moustache and beard curl into elaborate locks, and each of the eight pillars is capped by a head whose hair twists into serpents. Two inscriptions ask a prayer for Diarmait, King of Leinster, and remember Cellachan, perhaps the master mason. The monastery was plundered in 1041, when the oratory was destroyed, a hundred people killed and seven hundred taken captive, and its round tower stood until 1703, when it was pulled down. Reviewers praise the peaceful graveyard and its views over Killeshin; space at the gate is tight, and some park by the parish church down the road and walk up.

Open in daylightFrom OPW Heritage Ireland's published times

Open any reasonable time in daylight

Opening times may change at short notice.

An unguided open-air national monument in OPW's care with no staff and no facilities. OPW warns that care and caution should be kept throughout a visit to its unguided sites.

A sloping graveyard still in use, entered by a gate on the west or a step stile on the east; uneven ground. A reviewer met a bull in the field beside the graveyard. No toilets.

Photo: The west gable of Killeshin Church with its four-order Romanesque doorway beneath a steep pediment. NateBergin, CC BY 4.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:02_Killeshin_Church_Romandesque_Gabled_Arch.png. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0. Resized and cropped for display; derivatives retain the source licence.