What is recorded here

The Women’s Cemetery in Inishmurray holds at least sixty rough sandstone slabs beside Templenaman, suggesting a long line of buried women rather than a single dramatic event. The stones face east or west in loose rows, with a dense cluster around the Crossatemple leacht at the south end. That repeated choice of plain stone and direction implies a steady local practice of marking death with humility instead of pride.

Located in an enclosure (SL001-002002-) on the SE shoreline of Inishmurray island, and 85m SE of an early medieval ecclesiastical enclosure (SL001-001001-). This graveyard is traditionally known as ‘The Women’s Cemetery’, and is associated with Templenaman, The women’s church (SL001-002001-). There is a leacht (SL001-003001-) within the S end of the graveyard. Within the enclosure (SL001-002002-) grave markers occur throughout the area south of the women’s church (SL001-002001-), but particularly in the south and east of the enclosure. These take various forms, including several modern plinthed crosses, at least three cross slabs or cross-inscribed pillars (SL001-002008-; SL001-002012- & SL001-002013-), and an early inscribed memorial stone (SL001-002005-); but the commonest form is the unmarked, rough, sandstone slab erected to form a low headstone. There are at least 60 of these, including four within the church. They generally face east/west and are roughly aligned in rows (though this is less pronounced than in the Men’s Cemetery (SL001-001029-), at the Cashel (SL001-001001-)). There is a notable concentration of these towards the southern end of the cemetery and especially around the Crossatemple leacht (SL001-003001-). This is a National Monument (no. 117) in state ownership. The above description is derived from the results of a survey of the archaeological monuments on Inishmurray undertaken in 1997-1999 and published in: Jerry O’Sullivan and Tomás Ó Carragáin 2008 Inishmurrary. Monks and pilgrims in an Atlantic landscape. Volume 1: Archaeological Survey and Excavations 1997-2000. Cork. The Collins Press. Date of upload: 16 January 2018

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