Kilteel Church

Standing in a graveyard (KD020-007010-) immediately S of a preceptory of Knights Hospitallers (KD020-007003-) and surrounded by low earthworks (KD020-007004-), some of which are undoubtedly associated with the preceptory, but some may have originated with the Early Christian foundation here. A section of the Pale Boundary (KD020-008----) runs nearby, to the S and W. In 1977 and 1978, prior to its conservation, the ruined church was archaeologically excavated by Manning (1982, 173-229), who believes the place-name Kilteel derives from 'Cell céli críst', a unique, late 7th century name meaning the servant, client, vassal or devotee of Christ.

The surviving rectangular structure of nave (int. dims. 10.6m E-W; N-S 4.1m; wall T 0.84-0.9m) and chancel (int. dims. 7.8m E-W; 4.5m N-S; wall T 0.65m) with the decorated piers of a Romanesque chancel arch, was found to have resulted from several building-phases dating from the Early Christian through the Romanesque and high medieval periods to the 17th c. The earliest church was a simple, rectangular, single-cell structure (int. dims. 5.7m E-W; 4.1m N-S) built mainly of roughly coursed and mortared local shale, on a plinth, with granite quoins. It may date to the late 7th/early-8th century, but there are no references to the site before the 12th c. A Romanesque chancel arch, with piers bearing finely carved figures and motifs, was subsequently inserted into the original E gable wall, but no trace of its associated chancel was found. The carved figures include Adam and Eve, David and Goliath and possibly Samson. Later in the medieval period, the nave was extended westwards, with a doorway in the N wall, and a chancel of equal external width to the nave was built; lit by three windows in the S wall, which also contained a piscina, it too had a doorway in the N wall. The alteration involved interference with and rebuilding of the Romanesque chancel arch, and a decorated stone from the arch found rebuilt in the N wall of the extended nave bears a zoanthropomorphic representation, possibly of St. Luke. (Other carved stones from the arch had previously been found reused in modern farm buildings to the NW (Leask 1935, 1-2). The church was in ruins in the 16th century and the interior was used for burial. It was re-roofed for a short period in the later-17th century, at which time doorways in the N walls of the nave and chancel were blocked and a new doorway was broken through the W gable wall. When it subsequently fell into disrepair, the interior was again used for burial.

Finds included a granite lintel, with a recessed head, from the W doorway (Wth 0.8m) of the original church, and the probable inner and outer round window heads from the original E window; a building stone bearing a lightly pocked cross within a circle which may originally have been placed above the W doorway; two heel stones, an early grave slab (KD020-007011-), a fragment of a medieval coffin-shaped slab (KD020-007012-), two chevron-ornamented stones and some eight voussoirs from the Romanesque chancel arch, medieval window jambs, small fragments of painted medieval window glass, window-leading, roof slates and ridge tiles chiefly of 13th/14th century and 17th century date, and sherds of glazed and unglazed medieval and post-medieval pottery. (Fitzgerald 1915-17, 275; Leask 1935, 1-8; Killanin and Duignan 1967, 408; Harbison 1975, 123; Manning 1977-78, 73-4; Meagher 1979-80, 117; Weir 1980, 166)