Magherintemple

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Magherintemple is an area in north County Cavan in the province of Ulster, Ireland. It encompasses seventeen townlands of the Parish of Drung, in the Barony of Tullaghgarvey.

Irish archers before the English invasion

The name Magherintemple comes from the Irish "Machair an Teampaill" meaning 'Temple on the plain'. The area holds no governmental significance as a region today. In contemporary times, however, it was in all probability a ballybetagh or tributary area of a Gaelic lordship possibly the Priory of Fore in County Westmeath. It centres on the townland of Magherintemple, a drumlin or high hill known locally as Maghera.

Clan Tully(Chlainne Uí Mhaoiltuile), an Irish Clan meaning "descendants" or "kindred" of Maoltuile, had, in the 12th century, the tuatha (territory) of Muintir Taithligh, where they were chiefs of the Hy-Laoghaire (O'Leary's) of Lough Lir, in the barony of Lurg, near Lough Erne in modern-day County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland and the barony of Tullygarvey, in the parish of Drung, Wikipedia:Kingdom of Breifne.

"O'Ruairc or O'Rourke; and O'Raghallaigh or O'Reilly; these were the Princes of the territory of Bréifne with Mac Gilla Duib (Mac Gilduff) noted as chiefs of Tullygarvey (also known as Telach Gairbheth, alias Tellach Garbha. Subordinate to these was MacTaichligh or MacTully, chief of a district in the parish of Drung, in the barony of Tullygarvey" - unknown

According to John O'Hart, among the chiefs of the parish of Lurg were the Tully of Ulster (Muintir Taithligh) "chiefs of Hy-Laoghaire, of Lough Lir, a district which lay in the barony of Lurg, near Lough Erne, towards Tyrone."

Historical use and overview of topography

Tradition has it that the site was the location of an early Patrician Monastery, however there are now no ruins to substantiate this. The tradition states that Saint Patrick was visiting the neighbouring parish of Castletara, while on a hill there he noticed a large crowd assembled on a far off hill and of course the inquisitive Saint went over to investigate. The parish of Drung is reputed to have gotten its name from this encounter An Drong being the Old Irish for a large crowd or gathering. The tradition goes further to state that after Saint Patrick had converted this large crowd and set up a church in the townland of Drung, he then set his eyes on Magherintemple to the north. It was in the settlement of Magherintemple that he set up a Monastery. The amount of truth in this folk tale is debatable. Legends of this sort abound Ireland, especially southern Ulster with its relative proximity to Armagh the traditional seat of Saint Patrick. What can be ascertained from this story in real archaeological terms is that the chronology of habitation at the site can possibly be pushed back as some evidence would indicate to pre or at least early Christian Ireland.

Looking at the physical evidence the site provides one is immediately drawn to the earthen fortifications especially the outer enclosure. It is not hard to imagine the prominent position of the church and its enclosure over the surrounding area. Magherintemple is one of the highest hills in the area, and has an Ordinance Survey triangulation point. Records show that the monastic site in Magherintemple was under the Priory of Fore County Westmeath. After the Plantation of Ulster and The Act of Supremacy the lands of the ballybetagh of Magherintemple were given to the Protestant Church of Ireland.

The greater area around Magherintemple shows a large amount of other earthen formations. There are hillforts and ringforts are in almost all the surrounding townlands. Of course these sites were not erected or habitated at the same time but allowing for a degree of continual habitation over a period of time one sees an area preoccupied with defending itself! The proximity to the Worm Ditch or Black Pigs Dyke as it is sometimes called can here be taken into account. The Worm Ditch is just over a mile from Magherintemple. It is the supposed the frontier between the Gaelic kingdoms of Breffni and Oriel and the much more ancient provinces of Ulster and Connacht. The origins and functions of this triple ditch blockade remain a mystery, but have now been shown through excavation, to be clearly defensive. It has also been shown that these defences were tested on at least on one occasion, and coupled with what could be an ancient folk tradition from the area the theory gains more credence. In Medieval times Magherintemple fort as the site is locally called is reputed to have been the focal point where Cavan and Monaghan men came to settle disputes either by bouts of wrestling or duel. Looking to other like sites one can begin to therefore throw light on Magherintemple’s origins and functions.

“The available material evidence, in particular that from excavations, indicates that these ecclesiastical enclosures are mainly habitation sites.”

Magherintemples survival as an ecclesiastical centre and habitated site may rest on its possible earlier pre-Christian origins. An example of some of the many ancient legends mixed with fact stored in the collective memory of the area is the ‘Stone’ at the fort. A large stone is reputed to have been present in the area to the north of the graveyard known as the ‘Fort’, up to the seventeen hundreds when it was stolen. This stone was a charm of some sorts. On May Day morning cattle from all surrounding areas were herded past the site. This it was believed would give the herd fertility and health in the coming year. The stone also oozed a greasy substance, which was highly prized for it’s medicinal value. From early Celtic times to the twilight era of the Gaelic control of Ulster there are many mentions of stones both magic and otherwise. Gaelic Taoisigh and Lords were traditionally married to the area they controlled in almost pre-Christian ritual. Possibly this ancient stone was like many others in Ulster and indeed Ireland and was a coronation stone of sorts. It’s importance remaining past the collapse of the Gaelic system in this ancient tradition.

This cattle gathering led in the sixteenth century to the development of a market or fair of sorts in Magherintemple. The O’ Reilly kingdom of Breifne of which Magherintemple was part was increasingly becoming part of a market economy as the sixteenth century progressed. The Mac Brady’s of Cavan were trading with the Pale and traditional gatherings such as those at Magherintemple were possibly utilised as fairs or markets. “It [Magherintemple] is approached by several old roads, and was important as a fair ground in the sixteenth century”

The area, locations, and topography of the site as related to use

Magherintemple is a high drumlin whose summit is enclosed by two earthen enclosures. The extensive earthen formation is delimited from the surrounding terrain by a massive ditch which was dug around the hill. The excavated remains were then piled to the inside of the hill. In the survey of archaeological sites in Co. Cavan produced by the Office of Public Works and the Archaeological Survey of Ireland it is classified as follows;

“Hilltop enclosure Marked ‘Fort’ on OS 1836 ed. Large oval area on the summit of a high drumlin hill enclosed by field boundaries. The outline of the enclosing elements which have been levelled from NNE-ENE and SSE-S-SSW is still traceable.”

This information is not entirely correct. This formation has actually been levelled from ENE- N-NNW.

This enclosure contains a cemetery with a very uneven surface known as the ‘graveyard’ and the site of a prepenal church. The church is shown on the ‘Escheated Counties Map’ or ‘Down Survey’ and again in William Petty’s Hiberniǽ Deliniatio credited as Ireland’s first atlas. The graveyard is a small burial site with an uneven surface. As stated it encompasses a very small area of less than half and acre. From S-SE-NE it is delimited from the surrounding terrain by field boundaries. There are also traces of a ditch although this could be a later addition. The Graveyard is also markedly higher at this point and was almost certainly artificially raised from the surrounding terrain.  The remaining inner enclosure outline has been preserved by a road from NW-N. The northern section also shows another interesting feature, at intermittent sections there is an unmortared field stone wall of about forty centimetres in height, it is inbedded into the formation at ground level.

It served as a burial ground until the early 1930's for Magherintemple, Bunnoe a nearby area in the same parish, and much of the parish of Currin Co. Monaghan, with some burials from bordering parishes of Annagh and Kill "Killsherdany ". There are approximately 65 gravestones, (A small amount considering the antiquity of the site) but there are many standing stones without inscription, that may date from prefamine times. The earliest inscriptions are from the late 1700's and are in the English language. Many interesting carvings are to be found on the stones many of Celtic origin. No remains of the Church exist above ground today. On the examination of the site in 1948 an archaeologist Oliver Davies noted some masonry among which was cut stone fragment possibly from an early window. “The Church was a chapel-of-ease and not the centre of a parish. It is shewn with a tower on the Escheated Counties Map. It has disappeared. In the graveyard are several dressed blocks; but the only shaped one is, perhaps, a piece of an early window.”

Local information also points to another interesting feature of the site a cílín. A certain area of the graveyard was reserved for the burial of unbaptised children. It is overgrown. The practice is not uncommon in sites such as Magherintemple.

“In some cases there is no surviving graveyard or merely an old graveyard without any inscribed headstones. Such sites were often used for the burial of unbaptised children during the last few centuries and are known by various names kileen, ceallúnach etc.). In Magherintemple the practice remained right up until the 1950’s.

Magherintemple is not merely a hillfort or simply a hilltop enclosure that are common formations across Cavan, but is more likely to be an early enclosed ecclesiastical site. Leo Swan writes when discussing in his essay the nature of similar ecclesiastical enclosures.

“ Certain features are consistently associated with the ecclesiastical sites under discussion. Taking all such features together, they may be listed as follows, more or less in the frequency of occurrence:

Evidence of Enclosure. Burial area. Place-name with ecclesiastical element. Structure or structural remains. Holy well. Bullaun stone. Carved, shaped, inscribed or decorated stone cross or slab. Line of townland boundary forming part of enclosure. Souterrain. Pillar stone. Associated traditional ritual or folk custom.

Swan also states that all these features need not all be present, four or five being sufficient to confirm the sites original purpose.

Further reading

• Swan, Leo (1983) ‘Enclosed ecclesiastical sites and their relevance to settlement patterns of the first millennium AD’ in Reeves Smyth and Hammond, Landscape Archaeology in Ireland, BAR British series 116, Oxford.
• Swan, Leo (1985) ‘Monastic proto-towns in early medieval Ireland: the evidence of aerial photography, plan analysis and survey’ in Clarke and Simms (Eds.) The Comparative History of Urban Origins in Non-Roman Europe, BAR International Series, Oxford
• Swan, Leo (1989) ‘Ecclesiastical settlement in Ireland in the early medieval period’ in L’environment des Eglises, pp. 50-56.