What is recorded here

Grave Yd. is a much frequented burying ground in County Kilkenny where a medieval church still occupies the north portion. The local name Roilig a Tulachain identifies it as the burying ground of the Tulachan, linking ordinary death to a forgotten lineage. A coffin-shaped slab beside the church entrance and a fragmented chest tomb near the gate preserve that much older presence. What is missing is not evidence but witness: the lives, losses and choices of the people who kept returning to this ground.

Indicated on the 1st (1839) ed. OS 6-inch map as a roughly square area (dims. c. 53m NE-SW; c. 56m NW-SE), widening slightly to the SW, with rounded corners at the SE and SW. On this 1st ed. it is defined by a dashed line which suggests that the graveyard was unenclosed. By the 1947 revision map the graveyard had been enclosed to roughly the same area. The medieval church (KK023-030001-), orientated E-W, occupies the N portion of the graveyard. The graveyard is entered at the S end of the E wall from the public road. The OS Letters (1839) describe the graveyard as, ‘a large and much frequented burying ground attached. The people all call this (Roilig a Tulacháin) Roilig a Tulachain, i.e., the Burying Ground of the Tulachan’ (O’Flanagan 1930, vol. 1, 281-2 (95)). According to Carrigan (1905, vol. 3, 385) there is a coffin-shaped slab (KK023-030004-) in the graveyard, adjacent to the entrance to the church. Another graveslab fragment near the entrance to the graveyard may be portion of the chest tomb (KK023-030003-) also mentioned by Carrigan (ibid.). Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 27 July 2021

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.