Repair of historic mid Kerry abbey complete

KERRY County Council – with the support of the Heritage Council – has completed restoration works costing €15,000 at the 13th century Killagha Abbey near Milltown. It follows calls for restoration works on the historic structure by a local community group which brought the issue before councillors in the South and West Kerry Municipal District earlier this year.

Conservation work included the removal and re-setting of the cornerstones at the north-west corner of the abbey, the raking out and re-pointing of loose and unstable mortar in all joints in the west gable and the resetting of stones on the parapet over the gable wall.

“The north-west corner of the building had become unstable and a number of structural stones had fallen while others were loose. This was mainly due to the adverse winter weather over the last few years which washed out mortar and loosened joints,” said County Archaeologist Michael Connolly.

Killagha Abbey, just off the N70 road between Milltown and Killorglin, is an Augustinian abbey founded in 1216 which was occupied by the Canons Regular of St Augustine until 1576. Its well-known East Window was restored by a community group in the 1990s.

“The existing Conservation Plan for the abbey commissioned in 2012 was updated recently taking into account the current condition of the gable and an application for funding was made to the Heritage Council. It awarded a grant of €6,000 towards the project which cost €15,000 in total. Ministerial Consent for the works was granted by the National Monuments Service,” said Mr Connolly.

The works were carried out by David Russell Construction and overseen by Malachy Walsh and Partners, Consulting Engineers.

Kerry County Council has also overseen the mapping of the graveyard and a graveyard map has been erected at the entrance. The original, broken information signage on the wall of the abbey has been replaced.

Killagha Abbey near Milltown which has recently undergone a major €15,000 refurbishment.