Kilmanagh Church (site of)

In the eastern foothills of the Slieveardagh Hills, immediately W of a river which joins with the Munster River c. 6km to the S. Kilkenny City is located c. 12km to the ENE and Tullaroan is c. 4.5km to the N.

According to Carrigan (1905, vol. 3, 429), ‘the ancient form of the name is Cill Manach Droichit, or Kilmanagh of the Bridge. St. Natál, Nattál, or Notál …, most probably son of Aenghus mac Nadfraoich, King of Cashel (slain 489), founded a monastery here about the year 500, and was afterwards honoured as the local patron’. His feast day is the 31st of July (ibid.). Carrigan (ibid. 431), cites several entries in the Annals of the Four Masters from 780 to 843 which mention the monastery of ‘Cill na manach’ or ‘Cill-Mannach’ and which probably refer to Kilmanagh.

The medieval church was replaced by a C of I church in the late 18th century (Carrigan 1905, vol. 3, 431). According to the OS Letters (1839), ‘The old Church of Kilnamanagh is said to have been torn down about thirty years ago [c. 1809], to supply materials for building the parsonage house of the Parish (O’Flanagan 1930, vol. 1, 239). A block of limestone (KK018-066002-) incorporated in the N wall of the graveyard (KK018-066005-) is decorated with punch tooling, typical of the late medieval period.

On the Down Survey (1655-6) barony map of Crannagh there are three houses depicted in the townland of ‘Killmannagh’, which probably represent the settlement, a church is also depicted (Hibernia Regnum, courtesy of Trinity College Dublin). Three houses and a church are also depicted on the Down Survey (1655-6) parish map of ‘Kilmanagh’ (ibid.). The terrier accompanying the parish map describes ‘Killemannagh’ as an ‘unforfeited’ townland with, ‘a Church and some Houses’ (ibid.). The ‘Countess of Ormond’ is listed as the proprietor in 1640 (ibid.).

The modern village of Kilmanagh consists of a roughly trapezoidal shape, formed by four roads, the main road leading eastward towards the bridge (KK018-066003-). This main road curves to the N and the S road curves gently to the S, with the former medieval church centrally placed between the two, suggesting that these roads may be on the line of a roughly circular/oval monastic enclosure.