Great Church of Aidan

Situated at the S end of a small N-S ridge or spur. The church is dedicated to St Aodhán, son of Aonghas, of whom little is known except that he was descended from the Ceinéal Eichin branch of the Cinéal Eoghan of Donegal, and that this was his church (Ó Riain 2011, 74) where his feastday was celebrated on the 2nd of November (Shirley 1879, 315-18). It is also the site of the parish church of Kilmore, which is included as Celmor with the chapel of Drumsnat (MO013-002001-) in the ecclesiastical taxation (1302-06) of Pope Nicholas IV (Shirley 1879, 289; Cal. doc. Ire. 5, 212). The names of some of the clergy are known from 1424 (Leslie 1929, 215-6) and the church was described as ruinous in 1622 by bishop Spottiswood (McKenna 1920, 1, 306). The church was built anew in 1790 as the Church of Ireland Church of St Aidan (Leslie 1929, 216), which is still functioning.

The present church is at the southern edge of a rectangular graveyard (dims c. 100m N-S; c. 40-45m E-W) defined by masonry walls with a berm (Wth 2-4m) inside the walls on the level ground N of the present church. The berm was probably created when the walls were built and the material thrown inwards creating an uneven, raised (H 0.8m at N to 1.5-2.5m generally) graveyard. The headstone inscriptions have been recorded and date generally from 1722 to c. 1900 (Mulligan 1983). There is no evidence of a medieval church apart from a sandstone bullaun stone, which is partly buried inside the perimeter at N. It is a flat-topped D-shaped stone (dims 0.85m x 0.8m; visible H 0.2-0.8m) with one curved edge and a single basin (dims 0.38m x 0.33m; D 0.09m). (Brindley 1986, No. 1169; 1988)