148 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



have been formed, and a portion of its turning- arch yet remains. No 

 trace of a choir is now visible. Great masses of ivy hang over the 

 existing ruins, and large elder trees grow within them. Old haw- 

 thorns flourish through the burial-ground, which appears a very an- 

 cient one. A few modern inscribed head-stones are there, with ruder 

 ones over many unnoted graves. The situation of this old church 

 and graveyard, on the slope of a hazel-copsed hill, and very near the 

 celebrated rock of Dunamase, is truly picturesque.* As seen from the 

 spot, ranges of hills towards the north, swell and undulate, like 

 huge billows surging against the sky. The graveyard's surface rises 

 over the level of the adjoining road and fields, beside a modern 

 glebe-house. The cemetery is well fenced on every side. 



A writer engaged on the Ordnance Survey says, that the name of 

 Kiltaile Parish, CiU CeiSil, means "the Church of St. Teidhil." This 

 denomination is mentioned in the Calendarf at the 1 st of November, 

 when the Seven Bishops of Cill-Tidil are commemorated.^ However, 

 these may have been connected with some other Kiltale. 



Kilteale was an impropriate rectory, in 1615, with a residence. 

 Thomas Waller was then its Yicar. The annual value of this living 

 was £10. The church and chancel were in repair, with books. Both 

 were in the Deanery of Leix proper. A lease seems to have been 

 given to Pigott, and an order at the Council-table in behalf of 

 Jonathan Hoyle, circa annum 1637, regarding the lands of Kilteale. 

 See Liber Regain Visitationis. 



The right of the Pigott family to the advowson, tithes, &c, of the 

 rectories of Dysart-Enos, and Kilteale, had been questioned, but re- 

 affirmed by a vote of the Irish House of Commons, bearing date the 

 9th of July, 1641. The plaintiff in the case was named Jonathan 

 Hoyle, who would appear to have been for some time in possession 

 of certain ecclesiastical rights, from a decree passed at the Council 

 Board. These particulars are collected from some loose paper ex- 

 tracts, contained in a Manuscript Book belonging to Marsh's Library, 

 near St. Patrick's, Dublin, (Class Y. 3, Tab. 1, No. 24). They appear to 

 have been copied from tbe Minute Book of the Irish House of Com- 

 mons, and are marked in the MS., pages 191, 195, and 199 respec- 

 tively. These documents thus read : — 



* Higher up, on a spur of this ridge, and on a level with the old fortress works 

 of Dunamase, are to he seen the three concentric circular entrenchments of Colonels 

 Hewson and Reynolds, when in 1G50 they battered do-wn the castle Avails held by 

 the Confederate Catholics. See Irish Penny Magazine for 1833, Vol. I., No. 3, 

 p. 18. Those field-works are of very considerable height, and there is a fosse fully 

 eight feet in depth around the centre circle. The ditches and trenches are now 

 thickly covered with briars and hawthorns. A further description of this spot may 

 be seen in Legend Lays of Ireland, by Lageniensis, p. 73. 



f See Thomas O'Conor's communication in the Queen's County Antiquarian 

 Letters, Vol. I., pp. 354, 355. 



X See Dr. Todd's and Dr. Reeves' Edition of the Martyrology of Donegal, pp. 

 290, 291. 



