What is recorded here

St Coca's Graveyard in Kilcock may mark the lost site of a 6th-century monastery, but its visible stones and memories belong mostly to the last three centuries. A high mortared wall encloses a narrow rectangle where yew trees shade raised burial beds, while an underground vault and a levelled church remain hidden beneath the grass. Children were also buried there, giving the quiet place a sharper edge of loss and care.

On Church Lane, just N of the square in Kilcock village, and known locally as 'St Coca's Graveyard', it may occupy the site of a 6thC monastery (KD005-002----). The graveyard is sub-rectangular in plan (dims. L c. 50m NE-SW; Wth c. 40m), enclosed by a high wall (av. H 2m; T 0.5m) of roughly coursed, cross-capped, mortared stone and is entered through a gate at the W end of the S wall. The S two-thirds of the yew-planted interior is higher (H c. 1m) than the rest and contains the majority of burials, dating from early-18th to early-20th c. Traces of a levelled church (KD005-002001-) are visible just NE of centre. According to Simms (1999, 185) the graveyard was also used as a Children's Burial Ground (KD005-031----). Both Cullen (1999, 36) and Simms (1999, 184) refer to the presence of a now inaccessible, underground burial vault in the graveyard. (Rochfort 1999, 67-74) Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy Date of upload: 10 June 2011

Early medieval monastic site, possibly 6th-century; associated with St Coca and potentially containing ecclesiastical burials, reflecting the spread of Christianity in medieval Ireland.

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