What is recorded here

Grave Yd is a walled graveyard in County Kildare built above the old Cell céli críst monastic site and later Knights Hospitallers preceptory. Its ruined church held layers of faith from Early Christian times through the 17th century, while twenty-three headstones marked ordinary deaths from 1714 to 1954. The valley, lost stream and pale boundary suggest a place where religion, ownership and mourning kept being rewritten rather than forgotten.

In a minor valley through which a small stream formerly flowed SW just to the N, and on the site of the early monastic foundation of 'Cell céli críst', where a preceptory of Knights Hospitallers (KD020-007003-) was subsequently founded. Contains the ruins of a church (KD020-007002-) which, upon excavation (Manning 1982, 173-229), was found to be the result of several building-phases dating from the Early Christian through the Romanesque and high medieval periods to the 17th c. A section of the Pale Boundary (KD020-008----) runs nearby, to the S and W. A roughly rectangular area (dims. L c. 40m NE-SW; Wth c. 35m NW-SE) is enclosed by a stone wall. Manning (op cit 213-16) identified 23 headstones, one recumbent stone and an iron cross, and recorded all legible inscriptions. The dates on the headstones ranged from 1714 to 1954. Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy Date of upload: 10 June 2011

Medieval Christian burial site, associated with an early monastic foundation and later the Knights Hospitallers, dating to the 12th–14th century. Its location highlights the continuity of religious use of the site from early Christian to late medieval periods.

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