placenamesBunane
An Bunán
Bonane’s parish church and archaeological landscape record different forms of local building and preservation.
The name
A reliable full-name meaning has not been established here. The recorded Irish and English forms are given without an unsupported translation.
Recorded forms
- An Bunán · Irish · main form · validated name
- Bunane · English · main form
- Bonane · English · main form · local name
Place & story
Saint Fiachna’s Church
Saint Fiachna’s Church was blessed on 18 May 1892 after fundraising led by parish priest John Mangan. The architect was Daniel O’Connell, grandson of the Liberator, and the builder was Daniel Foley of Sneem. Local farmers supplied stone for the work. The church replaced an earlier building on the same grounds, one wall of which survived beside the presbytery. Mangan later became Bishop of Kerry in 1904. [2]
Archaeology on the hillside
The landscape around Dromagorteen and Curragraigue contains several kinds of archaeological monument. The park’s assessment lists ringfort, stone-circle and boulder-burial sites, while fieldwalking added a confirmed burnt-mound site and other features whose identification remained tentative. The November 2004 assessment combined inspection on foot with map research. Its account also records recent landscape change: forestry planted roughly thirty years earlier had been felled in 2003, exposing the hillside again. [3]
A park owned by the community
Bonane Community Co-operative Society formed in February 2002 to improve access to historic sites. Local people subscribed for shares, while volunteers and fundraising began the park’s development. A successful LEADER funding application through South Kerry Development Partnership paid for paths, signs and protection around the monuments. Bonane Heritage Park officially opened on 11 June 2006, turning the community’s archaeological interest into a shared place for visitors and education. [4]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Kerry
- Barony
- Glanarought
- Civil parish
- Kilcaskan
- Coordinates
- 51.80936, -9.53711 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 1165582 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Bunane. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Saint Fiachna’s Church · Bonane community website
- Park Archaeology: site assessment and recorded monuments · Bonane Heritage Park
- About the Park: discovery and community development · Danny O’Connor / Bonane Heritage Park
- Saint Fiachna's Church, Bonane (Bunane), County Kerry illustration: based on a An Bunan (Bonane): The Church (30 September 2006) by Nigel Cox. AI-assisted watercolour and ink adaptation; cream paper margins added, incidental clutter omitted and fine details simplified. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-01-10. How this page was prepared.