Kilfenora (Irish: Cill Fhionnúrach [ˌciːl̠ʲ ˈɪn̪ˠuːɾˠəx], meaning 'Church of the Fertile Hillside' or 'Church of the White Brow')[1] is a village and a civil parish in County Clare, Ireland.

[7] According to local tradition, the chancel was roofed with an oak ceiling (blue with a gold star) until the end of the 18th century.

It is roofless today and features a 15th-century doorway, a 15th-century Gothic sedilia as well as a Romanesque three-light east window with its triangular pillars topped by carved capitals.

[7] The "Lady Chapel" (sacristy or chapter room) was in a rectangular wing leading to the north of the chancel.

[7] Today, the cathedral remains in a partially ruined state, although restoration work was done by the National Monument Service in the early 2000s.

It was replaced in the early 19th century by the Blake Foster family with a classical house of cut stone with a central bow.

Due to its size it has been considered the likely seat of a regional "cattle baron", and was described in detail by antiquarian Thomas Johnson Westropp in 1897.

In 1845, the "Parliamentary Gazette" reported that about one-half of the surface is prime fattening-ground; about one-fourth is excellent rearing and tillage-land; and the remainder is mountain and bog, but only to a small extent unprofitable.

[14] This is a list of townlands in the parish: Ballagh, Ballybaun, Ballybreen, Ballyclancahill, Ballygoonaun, Ballyhomulta, Ballykeel North, Ballykeel South, Ballykinvarga, Ballyshanny, Boghil, Caherminnaun East, Caherminnaun West, Clogher, Clooneen, Cloonomra, Cohy, Commonage, Coolpeekaun, Creggaun, Doon, Fanta Glebe, Kilcarragh, Kilfenora, Laraghakea, Lickeen East, Lickeen West, Lisdoony East, Lisdoony West, Lisket, Maryville, Roughan, Slievenagry, Tullagh Lower and Tullagh Upper.

[10] According to tradition, the ecclesial presence at Kilfenora began with Saint Fachanan, who founded a church here in the 6th century.

[11]: 2, 4 Kilfenora was the site of the largest fair in north Clare, held here on 9 October from late mediaeval times until the early 19th century.

In 1712, the High Sheriff of Clare ordered the arrest of the entire clergy at Kilfenora on the suspicion of turning a blind eye to the laming of landowner cattle by malcontents.

After the 1798 uprising, a local priest, Father Charles Carrick was briefly jailed for supporting the rebels.

[1] By 1837, Samuel Lewis described Kilfenora as "a decayed market town" of 558 people, linked by a new road to Lisdoonvarna and Ennistymon.

After the West Clare Railway in 1887 connected Ennistymon, but not Kilfenora, to the rest of the country by rail, the latter's decline into a backwater was hastened.

[14] In 1942, a survey by the Irish Tourist Association found that the town had 100 inhabitants and "seven public houses, ten groceries, a Post Office, a Guard's Barracks [and] a National School".

[17] It also noted that around 60 men were employed by a phosphate mine and that Kilfenora was "a very important village for cattle and sheep fairs".