placenamesConwal
Conbháil
Conwal’s ruined church and burial ground preserve the site of an early ecclesiastical settlement west of Letterkenny.
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
- Conbháil · Irish · main form
- Conwal · English · main form
Place & story
An early church community
Historian Kieran Kelly identifies Conwal in annalistic records of 913 and 1204, both concerning the deaths of hereditary ecclesiastical keepers. The later entry names Sitric O’Sruithen and records his burial in a church he had founded. These notices show the importance of Conwal before the development of modern Letterkenny. [2]
The ruined church and grave slabs
Richard Crumlish’s 1997 archaeological assessment describes medieval church ruins in the middle section of the burial ground, together with grave slabs and cross-slabs on a rectangular stone cairn. A holy well lies in the eastern section. The church was already described as ruined in 1622. Testing for a proposed cemetery extension found no significant archaeological deposits in the trenches examined. [3]
Geographic information
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Conwal. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Ancient Tribes and Conwal Settlement · Kieran Kelly; Letterkenny Historical Society
- 1997:064, Conwal, licence 97E0221 · Richard Crumlish, Archaeological Services Unit Ltd.
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2024-05-02. How this page was prepared.