Grave Yd. — Islandboy (iveragh By.)

In 2011 an archaeological survey conducted at Duagh Graveyard by Robert Hanbidge was undertaken on behalf of Kerry County Council. The survey described the graveyard as follows; 'Duagh Graveyard is located within the townland Islandboy (ED Duagh), Co. Kerry, situated approximately 0.9km north-east of the village of Duagh and approximately 8 km southeast of Listowel. The River Feale Valley is located immediately to the north-east. The land rises gradually to the southwest, south and east where the respective Stack, Glanaruddery and Mullaghareirk Mountain Ranges are located. Notable structures within the vicinity of the site include the site of Duagh House, a medium-sized eighteenth century country house which was built by the Fitzmaurices, but demolished in the 1960’s. Some evidence of a designed landscape associated with Duagh House does survive some of which adjoins the graveyard; tree lined avenues and copses. The graveyard itself is situated on a gentle sloped angular platform which falls sharply to the northeast into the basin of the River Feale Valley, almost forming a promontory with the surrounding cliffs enhancing the effect. A small stream that forms the townland boundary between the townlands of Islandboy and Duagh runs parallel to the southern boundary of the graveyard and forms a small but steep natural glen. Within the graveyard a portion of ruinous wall may relate to the church structure that is illustrated on the OS First Edition 6”Map Sheet 17 (1839) and the OS 25” Map Sheet 17-03 (1910). For the most part the original graveyard follows a regular plan and is situated on a gentle west-east slope. A noted short break of slope occurs close to the southern boundary before the ground levels off immediately inside the southern boundary. Located to the west of the midway point along this break of slope within the graveyard is the partial ruin of what is probably the southern exterior wall of the church (KE017-005----). The graveyard has been recently extended to the north-west which more than doubles its size. To accommodate and integrate this extension into the original graveyard, the northern boundary wall and the northern portion of the western boundary wall have been removed and replaced by recent tarmacadam pathways. Historic rubblestone walls with rubblestone coping enclose the original graveyard while a recently reconstructed rubblestone wall forms the southern portion of the western enclosing wall. A recent timber post and rail fence links the historic southern boundary wall to the reconstructed western boundary wall. The southern portion of the eastern boundary to the recent extension consists of a rendered rubblestone wall with rendered rubblestone coping and rendered piers. The graveyard is accessed via three entrances. A pedestrian entrance is located within the western boundary wall of the original graveyard. Flanking this entrance to the north is an historic stile comprising of a number of projecting flagstones protruding from the wall to both the east and west elevations. The second larger entrance is located to the west of this stile within the southern boundary of the graveyard extension. The third entrance, again slightly larger in size is located c. 24.5 m west of the second entrance also within the southern boundary of the graveyard extension. The oldest grave recorded, with a date of 1763, is Grave No. 17. The boundaries of Duagh Burial Ground have gone through several phases of alteration within the last 200 years. Examining the OS First Edition 6” Map Sheet 17 (1839), the ruins of Duagh Church are marked within a small rectangular graveyard (probably occupying the most level area close to the entrance of the current graveyard). No visible remains of this initial boundary to the graveyard were observed during this survey. By the time of the publication of the OS 25” Map Sheet 17-03 (1910), the graveyard has expanded to a large polygon shape that represents the historic area of the current graveyard. Later on in the twentieth century the graveyard has expanded considerably to the northwest to the size that it is today. For the most part the boundaries visible on the OS 25” Map Sheet 17-03 (1910) are still extant with the exception of most of the northern boundary having been removed and replaced by a tarmacadam pathway to facilitate the enlargement of the graveyard. These walls consist of roughly dressed mortared rubblestone with convex render coping and have an average height of c. 1.5m. In total eight tombs were represented in Duagh Graveyard, seven of which were named. All of the tombs except for Grave No. 285 are rectangular in plan and vary in construction, with rubblestone walls featuring either dressed limestone or roughly dressed rubblestone quoins. The tombs at Grave Nos. 20, 272 & 283 are distinguished by the use of external smooth rendering. There are 223 named headstones and plots within Duagh Graveyard. The majority of these are in good condition and mostly date to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. There were only 20 unnamed or illegible headstones and plots present during the survey of Duagh Graveyard. In total 53 unnamed gravemarkers were recorded within Duagh Graveyard. The majority of these were concentrated in the central third of the graveyard and consisted of simple locally sourced stone, usually thin pieces which were placed in the ground e.g. Grave No. 168. Located within a mound of rubble which partially covers the unnamed tomb (Grave No. 249) was a possible fragment of a saddle quern. The fragment appears to be broken and consists of a portion of a sub-oval shaped basin. A series of inscribed lines on one end might indicate that the item was also used as a whet stone for sharpening metal implements. Also marking a burial (Grave No. 304), this carved stone is a broken off portion from the neighbouring headstone Miscellaneous No. 05 (Grave No. 305) with both originally forming part of a larger carved stone slab. The stone displays a simple raised moulding on the northern edge while the pecked portion of an arc is visible on the upper (southern) corner. The corresponding portion of the arch to Miscellaneous No. 03 is below the ground surface. It is not clear what this stone slab originally formed, it may possibly relate to the church which was located nearby to the south. Situated on a gentle slope close to the southern boundary beside a plot (Grave No. 83) was a disturbed tooled limestone plinth block. Representing the base of a headstone, the original location of this grave memorial is unknown. A small maker’s plaque ‘T. McAuliffe’ was noted to the upper edge. This large carved slab also marked a burial (Grave No. 305) and originally formed part of a large carved stone slab with Miscellaneous No. 02. The stone displays a simple raised moulding forming a border which develops into an ogee curved raided panel at the southern end. A deeply carved curvilinear channel is also visible above the grass at the south end' (Hanbidge 2012). Revised by: Caimin O’Brien Date of revised upload: 18 May 2022