The church at Bordwell may have been founded in the 12th century as it was recorded in the Book of Leinster as Bordgaile (1160). In 1210 it is recorded as being in the ownership of the Augustinians of St Thomas’ Abbey in Dublin after being granted to them by Thomas de Hereford. In ‘An outline history of Aghaboe, Clogh and Ballacolla’ (1981) A. Dowling noted that the Irish of the Slieve Bloom mountains burned the church in 1345. Throughout the history of Laois the Slieve Blooms were an area that the native Irish retreated to and in turn led attacks from. In 1481 the Calendar of Papal Letters records the name of the church as Borduyl, rectory of St. Finlinus. The church is described as being, “in ruins” by the time of Lewis Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1837).
All that remains of this early medieval church are two rounded arch doorways in the south and north walls. There is evidence of joist holes in the western end of the south and north walls which would indicate that there was an upper floor and may have been the remains of a gallery or a two story priest’s residence. The graveyard is dotted with headstones dating from the 18th century to the present day. There is evidence of a bank and fosse outside the graveyard which are believed to show the positioning of the earlier ecclesiastical enclosure.
The name Bordwell may derive from two sources, one school of thought is that it relates to the limestone that was quarried in the area, ‘Bord’ (meaning table or board in Irish) and aol (the mineral lime in Irish). A second idea for the origin of the name is that it derives from scholars who fled from Bordeaux in France to live at Bordwell as mentioned in the 1930s Dúchas Schools Collection.
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