The Bermingham surname is one that comes up again and again in sites around Kildare and Offaly, the family was involved in the building of Carbury Castle, Carrick Castle and Grange Castle to name just a few; these have all been featured on VOTP previously. The Church at Dunfierth was built around 1500 and due to recent renovations is in quite good condition, with nave and chancel intact. The Walter de Bermingham Tomb was built in 1548 and later, in 1815 was incorporated into the Hamilton vault though there is some debate about whether the structure existed as a mortuary chapel for the Berminghams previously . My main reason for wishing to visit this site was due to the beautiful carvings that surround the vault, representing biblical stories and the images of mourners or ‘keeners’. Looking into the tomb there is the carved effigy of a knight in armour holding a sword on the back wall, this is believed to be a representation of William De Birmingham. Most of the graves surrounding the church date from the 18th-19th century.
GPS: 53.38969, -6.83364
Nice job Ed, its a real hidden gem 🙂
Certainly is…..beautiful carvings.
Those carvings are fabulous – I’d be really struggling to age them, they hint back to the Lewis chessmen, right up to much, much later times – wouldn’t it be great to know about the -presumably- man who carved them.
Excellent photos. Great to see artefacts digitally recorded. Well done. Excellent carvings from this period of time.
Thank you. Its a very special lil place…deserves to be noticed!