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Grose's Antiquities 1792 - County Kildare, Ireland

County Kildare History and Heritage

Groses's Antiquities of Ireland: - County Kildare in the 1790's

KILUSSY CHURCH.

THE style of building in the steeple or tower of this church is very singular, not being paralleled (as far as I know) by any thing exactly similar in this kingdom, except at St. Kevin's Kitchen, where the round tower makes part of the fabrick. There are such structures at Halling in Kent, and Little Saxham in Suffolk.
Kilussy Church - CLICK TO ENLARGE THE time when Kilussy church was erected cannot be determined; the monastic chronicle ascribes its foundation to St. Auxil, nephew of St. Patrick; from whom it received its name, Kil-Auxaile, or more contracted, Kil-Ussy. Let its age be what it may, we know from the instance of St. Kevin's Kitchen at Glendaloch, built before 1169, that the original campanile or belfry was a distinct structure almost every where, but particularly in Ireland, and that its approximation to the church was by slow degrees. This belfry was, in those early times, a round tower. Whoever wishes to see this curious subject amply discussed, may find it in the Antiquities of Ireland by the editor of this work.
There is a castle and house at Kilussy; the latter the feat of Robert Graydon, Esq. the castle is a square battlemented tower of great strength, and is fitted up and used as offices for servants. Directly behind the house, on a rising ground, is Kilussy church: there are a number of caves contiguous, a strong proof of the antiquity of the fabrick.

THIS View was taken by Lieutenant Daniel Grose, anno 1792.

(p. 84, Vol. II)