What is recorded here

Four high crosses still stand within the graveyard on Kilmacoliver Hill, marking an early medieval monastery that watched the River Suir valley. A curving dry-stone wall buried beneath the northern sector may have belonged to that monastery or arrived later, wrapping the sacred ground in a ribbon of rubble and boulders. Either way, the enclosure shaped the place where people buried their dead and prayed beside crosses carved for generations.

On the lower S-facing slope of Kilmacoliver Hill, overlooking the valley of the River Suir. The medieval church and graveyard (KK034-032002-) are located on the site of an early medieval monastery, as evidenced by four high crosses (KK034-032004-; KK034-032005-; KK034-032006-; KK034-032007-) within the graveyard. An archaeological excavation within the N sector of the graveyard in 1985 (Hurley 1988, 124-34) revealed a wall (Wth 1.5-2m; H 0.2-0.9m) one to two courses high. The wall extended E-W in a gradually curving arc (ibid. 126). The wall was faced internally and externally with dry-stone walling and the interior was filled with rubble and large boulders (ibid. 126, 129). The wall was not removed but it appeared to be set on boulder clay which was at a higher level than the boulder clay within the enclosure, suggesting that the raised area under the wall may have been a natural terrace or a pre-existing clay bank (ibid. 129). It was not established whether the wall and possible bank were associated with the monastery or were later medieval features (ibid.). Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 20 August 2018

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