Overview
Graveyard in Rathdown Upper is recorded as Graveyard in Wicklow. In the early seventeenth century this graveyard which was associated with St Crispin's Cell (WI008-012001-) was cleared and the disinterred bodies were 'buried in one pit at the east end' (O'Flanagan 1928, 33-5). In 1827 a local man of 97 years of age gave the following account about the graveyard
Who made it and when
The saved account records: In the early seventeenth century this graveyard which was associated with St Crispin's Cell (WI008-012001-) was cleared and the disinterred bodies were 'buried in one pit at the east end' (O'Flanagan 1928, 33-5).
How it was made and used
The saved account records: [Charles] Tarrant the proprietor, razed the tomb stones, disinterred the bones in the church yard and recommitted all the earth again in one large pit dug for the purpose, after which he erased the church itself’ (Wright 1827, 19-20).
What was found
The saved account records: In 1838 the Ordnance Survey Letters recorded that 'No one in the neighbourhood of Rathdown now remembers anything of the church thus razed, but they remember that the bones were all dug up from the graveyard of the little church [WI008-012001-] of St. Crispin and buried in one pit at the east end, by some bad man' (O'Flanagan 1928, 40).
What remains
The saved account records: it is now unroofed and the walls clothed with ivy
Why it mattered
Graveyard in Rathdown Upper matters because the source ties graveyard to this exact landscape and preserves evidence that a bare map name loses. The saved account adds: In 1827 a local man of 97 years of age gave the following account about the graveyard
History checked 15 August 2026 against the named sources below.
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