What is recorded here

Quakers Grave yard stands at the north end of Main Street in Mountrath, County Laois, holding the first Quaker settlers who arrived during the seventeenth century. They walked into a town still smoothing the bruises of the 1641 destruction, perhaps finding in its quiet streets a place where conviction could be lived rather than argued. Their bodies rest beneath that ordinary ground now, while the market noise and linen trade have long since changed shape around them.

Situated at the N end of the Main Street at the junction with Church Street on the W side. In 1628 Sir Charles Coote obtained a grant for Mountrath (LA017-033) 'of two weekly markets and two fairs, and established a very extensive linen and fustian manufactory, which in the war of 1641, together with much of his other property here, was destroyed' (Lewis 1837, vol. 2, 395). By 1659 it was the largest and most important settlement in the county. Several buildings are marked on the Down Survey (1655-6) map, and the outline of possible town defences (LA017-033004-) are visible on E side of town on a map dated 1730. The foundry house, formerly a Quaker's Meeting House, on W side of Bridge Street formerly known as Coote Street possibly incorporates an earlier seventeenth century house (LA017-033002-) (information from R. Loeber). The Quakers Graveyard (LA017-033005-) is located at the N end of the Main Street on the W side and was probably used as the bruial place for the first quaker settlers of this town in the 17th century.

This remains an important historical record, but the official description says the monument is no longer visible or has been destroyed. The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.