Church, Cill Charthaigh, Co. Donegal

Church, Cill Charthaigh, Co. Donegal

In the countryside near Kilcar village in County Donegal stand the weathered remains of Kilcar Old Church, also known as Cill Charthaigh.

Church, Cill Charthaigh, Co. Donegal

The church was already in ruins by 1622, though the surviving structure likely dates from a later period. What remains today are fragments of a modest building that continued serving the local community until 1828, when a new church was constructed in the village itself. The surviving portions consist primarily of the western gable wall at its original height, along with sections of the north and south walls extending about 5 to 6 metres eastward.

The ruins reveal the church’s simple construction; rubble walls that once featured ashlar quoins at the corners, though most of these dressed stones have since disappeared. The western entrance doorway displays bold chamfered jambs topped by a pointed arch, considerably weathered by centuries of Atlantic weather. Inside, the south wall shows evidence of alterations, with a visible break in the masonry suggesting the eastern section may have been added at a later date. This addition includes the splayed opening of what was once a window. The interior walls still retain their plaster coating whilst the exterior is covered in harling, a traditional roughcast render.



The church sits within a rectangular graveyard measuring 28 by 44 metres, where a carved stone fragment, likely from one of the church’s original windows, has been repurposed as a grave marker. Just outside the graveyard, built into a boundary wall beside the road, is a curious stone bearing random grooves that local tradition holds to be of ancient origin. About 100 metres northeast lies Tobermurry, consisting of a bullaun stone surrounded by a small cairn. This bullaun, a type of stone basin often associated with early Christian sites, features two depressions carved into its surface; a smaller one measuring 34 by 40 centimetres and 23 centimetres deep, and a larger shallow depression about 2 metres across, with a channel directing water into the smaller basin.

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Cill Charthaigh, Co. Donegal
54.6327616, -8.5979375
54.6327616,-8.5979375
Cill Charthaigh 
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