Kiltiernan Graveyard

Graveyard on rectilinear-plan, erected c. 1750, having collection of mainly recumbent eighteenth and nineteenth-century gravemarkers. Some upstanding, Celtic cross and table-type memorials to site. Site surrounded by rubble or fieldstone boundary wall. Gateway to the east comprising a pair of rubble stone gate piers (on square-plan) having wrought-iron gate. Located in the centre of a field to the south-east of Ardara in undulating countryside.

An interesting and attractive graveyard set in the scenic countryside to the south-east of Ardara. The robust rubble stone boundary walls survive in good condition, and help create a feature of some picturesque appeal in the undulating landscape. It contains mainly recumbent gravemarkers dating to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as well a number of upstanding, Celtic cross and table-type memorials, some of which are of modest artistic merit. The earliest gravemarkers are recumbent and date from 1762 to c. 1810 (earliest legible gravemarker commemorates William O’Deare, dated 1762. There are also a number of unusual cast-iron shield-type memorials dating to the twentieth century. According to local tradition, this was the site of Catholic masses during Penal times (c. 1690-1780). This solemn site makes a strongly positive contribution to the local landscape e, and is of social importance to the local community as a graveyard. Although a recorded monument (see RMP DG083-001----), there is no physical evidence of a pre-1700 date for this site apart from its name.