2008 Fieldwork
Fieldwork in 2008 addressed several themes; ascertaining the potential for settlement and occupation around church sites, mapping the landscapes of lordly centres and examining the morphologies of their constituent sites.
Kilcooley church was the centre of the parish of the same name. A brief reference in annals of Connacht implies that there was once a settlement in the vicinity of the church.
‘Brian son of Cathal Dub O Conchobair was killed in another brawl, at Kilcooley, with one thrust of a spear, by Cormac Cam son of Magnus son of Fedlimid; and Fedlimid son of Fedlimid was mortally wounded by a spear thrown from inside a house, though he came away coura geously’.
AConn, 1448
The church site was selected in order to trace any potential medieval settlement in its environs. In 2007 analysis of aerial orthoimages followed by fieldwork identified earthworks extending beyond the boundary of the modern church site. In 2008 the project had the first opportunity to use recently acquired geophysical survey equipment in collaboration with a team from NUI Galway led by Joe Fenwick. The survey revealed a relict roadway and a series of enclosures outside the graveyard. Cultivation ridges within and outside these enclosures confirm that there was a settlement component to the church site. The fragment of a decorated rotary quern identified in the graveyard wall and another one recovered in a field to the north of the church site also support the hypothesis of a medieval settlement. Another relict road and deserted settlement which have been identified to the south of the modern road are likely to have been abandoned in the eighteenth or early nineteenth century.
The church
Parts of the south wall of a medieval church are incorporated into the graveyard wall. Medieval architectural fragments identified in the graveyard suggest there had been at least two construction phases in the thirteenth and fifteenth or sixteenth centuries. Resistance survey was used to successfully trace the foundations of the church. The plan reveals that the church was constructed in at least two phases, beginning with a single celled structure that was subsequently enlarged by the addition of a second cell to the west gable.
