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Population centre

Church Hill

Mín an Lábáin

Church Hill’s parish church records generations of patronage, while nearby Glebe House preserves the home and collection of the painter Derek Hill.

Watercolour and fine ink illustration of Glebe House, near Church Hill.
Illustration, Glebe House, near Church Hill
Recorded locationChurch Hill54.98245° N · 7.90627° WInteractive map supplied by OpenStreetMap.
Approximate recorded location · Logainm.ie

The name

mínmountain pasture

These Irish name elements are associated with this record in the Logainm glossary.

An element’s translation is a clue, rather than a complete explanation of the name. Its form and meaning depend on local history and the full Irish name.

Recorded forms

  • Mín an Lábáin · Irish · main form · validated name
  • Church Hill · English · main form
  • Churchhill · English · main form

Place & story

Saint Columba’s and the Adair additions

Saint Columba's Church was built in 1819 to designs by George Grier, whose name appears on its tower plaque. Cornelia Adair of Glenveagh funded a chancel and vestry in 1895. Architect James Franklin Fuller added a north aisle and eastern window in 1913. The different phases remain visible in the contrast between the rendered earlier church and the exposed masonry of its later Gothic additions. [2]

People & connections

Derek Hill’s home beside Lough Gartan

Glebe House, near Church Hill, dates from 1828. The painter Derek Hill made it his Donegal home in the 1950s and lived and worked there for nearly thirty years. He later presented the house and his art collection to the Irish state. His adjoining studio became a gallery, preserving an artistic workplace while creating a venue for changing exhibitions. [3]

A collection gathered across cultures

Hill's collection includes works by Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Louis le Brocquy and Auguste Renoir, alongside art from Japan and the Islamic world. William Morris textiles and furnishings remain part of the house's interior. The Office of Public Works presents the building substantially as Hill left it, allowing the domestic setting and collected objects to be considered together rather than separating the paintings from their owner's home. [3]

Geographic information

Place type
Population centre
County
Donegal
Civil parish
Gartan
Coordinates
54.98245, -7.90627 (approximate)
Logainm ID
1412960 ↗

Sources & further reading

  1. Logainm.ie — Church Hill. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
  2. Saint Columba’s Church,Gartan,registration40905209 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
  3. Glebe Gallery and Garden,Derek Hill House · Office of Public Works,Heritage Ireland
  4. Glebe House, near Church Hill illustration: based on a Glebe House - Home of artist Derek Hill by Joseph Mischyshyn. 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.