Kilflynn () is a village and a civil parish in north County Kerry, Ireland. It is 11 km north-east of Tralee just off the N69 road from Tralee to Listowel. Etymology The origin of the place name Cill Flainn is unknown. Two suggestions are commonly circulated. ‘Cill’ in Irish can mean 'cell' or 'churchyard' so in context might mean 'church of Flainn.' A popularised tale is that it was named after a Roman Catholic hermit monk, Flainn, said to have lived by the River Shannow (which runs through Kilflynn). Crippled and blind, he was visited by the Virgin Mary, who offered to restore his ailing sight. Flainn declined, asking for the miraculous power to be transferred to others via a local well (now Tobar Flainn, well or spring of Flainn). Some refer to this person as ‘St Flainn,’ but no such person was canonised. There is possible confusion with St Flannan, originally from Killaloe in County Clare. The alternative suggestion is that the name derives from the 'O’Flannan tribe': in August 1931, in the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, a paper referencing a 15th-century manuscript (itself said to be a copy of a 12th-century document) listing rents in Clanmaurice presents both 'O Flannayn' and 'Kyllflanyn' as 'Kilflyn' in the English translation from the original Latin, a significant error which may be the root of the suggestion. The cantred (cf. Welsh cantref or English hundred) or rural deanery of Othorna & Oflannan (Irish Uí Thorna & Uí Flannáin) was an Anglo-Norman sub-division, in this case generally along the historical boundaries of much older kingdoms and regions which were part of West Munster (Irish Iarmuman or Iar Mbumba), in the realm of the Ciarraighe, and which later became County Kerry some time between 1222 and 1229. Different anglicised spellings appeared over the years. In William Petty's Down Survey of Ireland (1655-1656) the parish appears as 'Kilfloinie Parish'. Charles Smith wrote it as 'Kilflin' in 1756, as did William Wilson 30 years later. In Taylor and Skinner’s road maps of 1777 it is spelt 'Kilftyn', likely a transcription error. Samuel Lewis wrote it 'Kilflyn' in 1840 and this spelling is extant in places. Locally, and in most documentation, it is spelt Kilflynn. Geography The village lies in the southern part of the Listowel or Kerry plain. The rocks underlying the village area are typically Namurian sandstone and shale which formed between 326