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."

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.