Above Image: The South wall and doorway
Above Image: Southern doorway
I visited this ruin a few years back and somebody told me they had seen it recently and that it had not changed much from my description. I had wanted to post this for quite some time now but information was hard to come by.
When I made the visit I met a farmer in the laneway, in fact he was the the landowner and he gave me some information which I include here. There are many, many old church ruins like this in Ireland whose history is sketchy or in fact non extant. But for me this all adds to the mystery of these remnants of our past, still visible and maybe diminished in stature but not in interest.
Firstly, the church is certainly medieval in origin and was apparently dedicated to St. Baire whom I cannot find any backround information on, but the name "Kilberry" derives from KIL (for church) and BERRY (it seems from Baire). What remains are the often ivy covered ruins of the nave and tower but little else.
Access is by way of a gate although access over a former stile may now have been bricked up since my visit.
The gate arch of the South doorway divides the graveyard and it is possible to see up inside the partial tower remains.
This church is situated down a long narrow road from the main road and historically this place was called Abbey Farm. Indeed the farmer I spoke to still farms this land. He said that a group from the OPW arrived one day to clear some ivy from the ruin but found that it was actually now supporting one of the walls and so abandoned the work. Abbey farm was the home of the Verschoyles and was named after the Abbey linked to the Hospitallers of St John, which later became a nunnery and was in fact listed as so on the 1837 O.S. map. It once stood adjacent to the church and beside Kilberry Castle. He told me that the remains of the castle were now incorporated into the farm buildings and that the Abbey ruins were virtually gone. Apparently in another of his fields a short distance North was the stump of Castlereedy castle once home to the La Redes. It had a folk tale attached to it that locals believed that a cache of gold had been buried beneath the castle and many a sound of nocturnal digging and activity could be heard in the wee hours among the ruin in the years before the turn of the twentieth century.
After spending a little time exploring the remains I left this small remote station of Catholicism and ventured back to the main road for the next port of call that day which was nearby Ballybracken.
To find the ruin take an exit at junction 14 0f the M7 motorway and from the roundabout follow the signs for the R445 to Monasterevin. Drive for approx. 3KM until you see a left hand turn onto the R417 to Athy. Turn onto this road and drive approx 12KM until you pass a line of bungalows on your right. Shortly thereafter there is a right turn signposted for Kilberry Cemetery. Drive right to the bottom of this narrow road and you will see the gate to the cemetery on your right. Park so as not to inhibit access to the farm gate opposite.
Co-ordinates 53.034918. -7.025073
