Grave Yard

On a rise in undulating pasture. Outlined and named ‘Grave Yard’ on both the first (1842) and Cassini (1920) editions of the OS 6-inch map. This subrectangular graveyard (55m E-W; 21-35m N-S) is enclosed by a double-faced drystone wall with a gate near the W end of the S wall, adjacent to a lane. It contains a late-15th/16th century church (CL017-066001-) in its N side. Most of the legible burial markers date to the 19th and 20th centuries. Macnamara (1901, 361) concluded that a number of graves were marked with stones taken from a demolished mortuary chapel built against the exterior face of the church’s E gable wall in 1735 by Thomas MacGorman of Inchiquin. One grave-marker is part of a crest with a man with a spear on a small horse, possibly the ‘stone with armorial bearings’ which was found within the mortuary chapel in 1839 (Comber 1997, 15). The graveyard also contains a number of architectural fragments (CL017-066004-). Archaeological test excavations just SE of the graveyard (Excavation licence no. 96E101) uncovered no archaeological remains (Hodkinson 1997); nor did archaeological testing and monitoring (Excavation licence no. 00E676) immediately to the S of the graveyard (Read 2001; Carey 2002).   Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy and Conn Herriott    Date of upload: 13-10-2025