What is recorded here
Kilsaintlucan Grave Yard occupies the south end of a pasture ridge in County Kildare, where a ruined church still stands above marked burials and uninscribed markers. The earthen bank, truncated by a modern laneway, once formed a circular enclosure large enough to resemble a fort, suggesting the ground has gathered dead and memory for centuries. Local tradition connects the site to a fever hospital in Naas during the famine, implying that rows of unnamed loss may sleep beneath the grass beside the older stones.
Prominently sited at the S end of a NNW-SSE pasture ridge with extensive sand/gravel pits to the N. Hachured as a rath-like circular enclosure (est. diam. c. 50m) on the 1st ed. (1839) of the OS 6-inch map, and described by the OSL in 1837 (Herity 2002, 56 (165)) as, ‘a circular graveyard resembling a fort.’ It survives as a sub-rectangular area (ext. c. 60m E-W; c. 37m N-S) enclosed by an overgrown earthen bank with outer stone facing, and modern wire fencing. There is an entrance gate at S and the enclosing element has been truncated from S-W by a modern laneway, and where it also acts as a townland boundary. A ruined church (KD024-013----) lies at the highest point in the interior. Marked burials occur to the S of the church, and the earliest datable gravestones are of the 18th century, and there are also a number of uninscribed grave markers. According to local information (http://www.kildare.co/Graveyard-Details.asp?ID=K080 Last accessed 11 June 2012), this was also a famine graveyard connected with the fever hospital in Naas.
Compiled by: Geaóid Conroy
Date of upload: 11 June 2012
The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.
- What survives
- Recorded monument
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