Churchtown

16 registered freehold parcels lie mostly in Churchtown, from 42 m² to 160,624 m² (16.06 ha, 39.69 acres). The dashed line is the townland's boundary; 19 neighbouring parcels touch it.

Download the townland: DXF, in Irish Transverse Mercator metres, with its boundary, parcels and buildings; GeoJSON or KML.

No zone of a development plan covers Churchtown in the national zoning. Outside zoned towns and villages, the county development plan's rural policies apply to each application.

Source: Tailte Éireann and the Department of Housing (MyPlan), national zoning, CC BY 4.0.

• 29 Mar 2018Conditional

  construct the following , A new agricultural entrance to my lands along with all ancillary services and associated works

  Permission · Laois County Council, 18193

Source: National Planning Applications, Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, CC BY 4.0. Applicants are not shown.

Designated sites

No designated site (Special Area of Conservation, Special Protection Area, Natural Heritage Area or proposed one) touches the townland of Churchtown.

Recorded monuments

• LA016-018001 Church
  Description

  St Cedus is the patron Saint of Churchtown and is commemorated on the 20th of November (Carrigan 1905, vol. 2, 174). A late medieval parish church ( ext. dims. L c. 16.2m, Wth c. 9m, wall T c. 0.85m) built of roughly coursed limestone. Remains of a doorway survive in W end of S wall. A window jamb, possibly belonging to the destroyed E window, lies in SW angle of church. Carrigan (ibid., 172-3) describes a late medieval doorway in E end of N wall, and within graveyard, a roughly cut circular greenstone font (Wth c. 0.3m, D c. 0.9m) (LA018-018003-) and a holed stone (LA016-018004-). These are no longer visible. Churchtown was appropriated to the Cistercian Abbey of Graiguenamanagh by William Fitz John. Bishop of Ossory(1302-17) and continued in the possession of the monks until the time of Henry VIII (Carrigan 1905, vol. 2, 174). Described by Carrigan in 1905 as a 'ruined structure..is a quadrangular building 53 ft. long externally and 29 ft. wide, and affords an interesting example of a most ancient church partially rebuilt and enlarged at a very remote date. The north side-wall, which is 10ft. High, and the west gable, are still most perfect; the east gable has a breach in the centre from top to bottom, but its sides remain, together with three not inconsiderable pieces of the south wall. In the north side-wall where the altar stood, is a doorway closed up for centuries, yet still preserving all its distinctive features. It external sides are framed with reddish freestone, chiselled and chamfered; the top is round or rather slightly curved, and is turned with small rough stones. On the outside it is 6ft. 3 in. high to the spring of the arch or curve, and 9 in. thence to the apex; its width at the ground is 4 ft. 4 in., and at the springing of the arch 4 ft. Being thus of the Celtic pattern it belongs to a date not later than the 12th century. The north side-wall, from this door included to the west end, is all of the same age, strongly built and 34 in. thick;…. The south side-wall where it adjoins the west gable, to an external; length of 14ft. 3in., is only 31 in. thick and is of the same date as the opposite wall. Here was the public entrance door, now much injured, but which appears to have been the counterpart of the closed up door in the north wall, with this exception that its sides splayed towards the inside and not towards the outside. About 4 and a half ft. of the north side of the east gable, towards the centre, belongs to about the year 1400, when an ogee window, fragments of which lie around was inserted at the back of the altar. This window had a hood moulding, ending in two very rude carvings of human heads, which have been removed to Mr. Tarrant's premises in Castletown' (Carrigan 1905, vol. 2, 172-3). According to the Rental Book of the Earl of Kildare the 'Vicar of Chircheton [Churchtown] iiiid. Of every cow, a swyne of every croo of swyne, and a mutton of every croo of shepe belonging unto him' (Carrigan 1905, vol. 2, 174). The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Laois' (Dublin Stationery Office, 1995) compiled by P. David Sweetman, Olive Alcock and Bernie Moran. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 17 December 2007

• LA016-018002 Graveyard
  Description

  Irregularly shaped graveyard (int. dims. 57m N-S; 60m E-W) defined by a 19th century wall (H 1m, Wall T 0.5m) with church located in S quadrant. Some uninscribed gravemarkers visible. Most headstones are post 1700 AD. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Laois' (Dublin Stationery Office, 1995) compiled by P. David Sweetman, Olive Alcock and Bernie Moran. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 17 December 2007

• LA016-018003 Font
  Description

  Described by Carrigan as 'The ancient holy water font, which lies in the graveyard (LA016-018002-), is of the most primitive description, being merely a small rough piece of greenstone with circular bowl (Wth c. 0.3m, D c. 0.9m). There is a rough holed-stone (LA018-018004-) beside it. No visible surface remains. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Laois' (Dublin Stationery Office, 1995) compiled by P. David Sweetman, Olive Alcock and Bernie Moran. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 17 December 2007

• LA016-018004 Holed stone
  Description

  Reference to rough holed stone within the graveyard (Carrigan 1905, vol. 2, 173). No visible surface remains. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Laois' (Dublin Stationery Office, 1995) compiled by P. David Sweetman, Olive Alcock and Bernie Moran. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 17 December 2007

Architectural heritage

No building of the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage stands in the townland of Churchtown.

Designated sites: National Parks and Wildlife Service. Recorded monuments: Sites and Monuments Record, National Monuments Service. Buildings: National Inventory of Architectural Heritage. Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, CC BY 4.0. Works at or in relation to a recorded monument need two months' written notice to the National Monuments Service (National Monuments (Amendment) Act 1994, section 12).

Radon

About 1 in 10 homes in this area is likely to have high radon levels. Testing a home

Landslides

Susceptibility low, low (inferred), on the 1:50,000 map.

Terrain model

No LiDAR survey of the Office of Public Works covers the centre of the townland of Churchtown.

Flooding

The flood maps of the Office of Public Works: floodinfo.ie.

Radon Risk Map of Ireland, Environmental Protection Agency; Landslide Susceptibility Classification, Geological Survey Ireland; both CC BY 4.0. LiDAR: contains Irish Public Sector Data (Geological Survey Ireland & the Office of Public Works) licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.

No address of the register names Churchtown with five sales or more. The sales of the area are on the page of Co. Laois.

Name

Churchtown · Baile an Teampaill

Area

565,434 m² (56.54 ha, 139.72 acres)

Civil parish

Offerlane, and its townlands

Barony

Upperwoods

Electoral division

Castletown, the unit of the census

Census 2022

Castletown electoral division: 835 people in 287 households; 80% of households own their home; 36% of homes were built since 2001; 9% of dwellings stood vacant on census night, and 1% were holiday homes.

Neighbouring townlands

Aghafin, Bohernaghty, Churchfield, Crossfield, Newtown

Placenames

Churchtown on logainm.ie, the Placenames Database of Ireland

Townlands, civil parishes, baronies and electoral divisions, National Statutory Boundaries, Tailte Éireann, CC BY 4.0. Census 2022, Small Area Population Statistics by electoral division, Central Statistics Office, CC BY 4.0. A townland is the smallest land division of Ireland, and the unit of a rural address; old registers such as the 1901 and 1911 censuses file it under its civil parish and barony.