Ecclesiastical enclosure in Castlefarm (nethercross By., Kilsallaghan Ed) — Report the wrong picture

What is recorded here

Double earth walls circled St David's before Norman rules reached Dublin, marking the yard as sacred long before stone towers rose elsewhere. Horses now stamp the ancient line into mud, erasing the boundary that once separated the living from the dead. The church still stands inside the forgotten circle, waiting for people to remember that the ground was drawn around it, not the other way.

There are traces of a flat wide embankment NW of the church outside the graveyard wall (Wth.7m, H 0.40m) which is probably the remains of an ecclesiastical enclosure, suggesting a pre-Norman date for this site. Swan (1971) identified further traces of it ; a double enclosure that extends from the SW to the NE near the curving roadway which runs adjacent to St David's church. An aerial study established the presence of a low curving bank enclosing the churchyard to the N and E (Clinton 2005, 36). Visible on Bird's Eye view on Bing Maps. Has been fenced off for horse enclosure-area completely poached. Compiled by: Geraldine Stout Update by: Christine Baker Date of upload: 02 January 2015

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