Bully's Acre

Graveyard on irregular wedge shaped-plan, laid out c. 1798. Site of executions and burial following the Battle of Ballinamuck in 1798. Cut stone recumbent table tomb, dated 1763, and collection of mainly uninscribed upright gravestones to interior. Site bounded by largely modern rubble limestone boundary wall having memorial plaque, dated 1998. Located to the north end of Ballinalee.

Irish rebels and British forces fought in the Battle of Ballinamuck in 1798; the British won, leading to the suppression of the Irish Rebellion. The site became a burial ground for executed rebels, marking a significant loss for the rebel cause.

This simple site is of historical significance as the burial place of Irish rebels executed following the Battle of Ballinamuck in 1798, an important event in the history of Ireland (see record 13301004 for battlefield). The men were hanged from trees in the locality and the number of executions and burials here varies from 53, to 130 to 143 depending on the historical source. The graveyard contains a collection of grave markers, including a recumbent table-like monument, with the date 1763. This is also the possible site of a pre-1700 AD church(LF009-02301-/LF009-02302-). A two-storey building to the south, a former Masonic hall (13304013), is reputedly the place where Lord Cornwallis tried and sentenced to death those who are now buried in Bully's Acre.