Grave Yard, dotted outline — An Baile Íochtarach (par. Cill Dromann)

Kildrum church/Teampall Chill Dromann: The site of the parish church [KE043-130----] of Kildrum mentioned in the Papal Taxation List (1302-7) for the diocese of Ardfert (Cal Docs Ire, V, 297) lies in a graveyard (KE043-130001-) on the lower NE slopes of Lateevemore. The graveyard has been extended and enclosed since the 19th century when it was described as nearly circular and unenclosed (OSNB Kildrum, 33). In 2010 a graveyard survey carried out by Laurence Dunne recorded the following details: 'Kildrum Graveyard is situated on the N side of the Dingle Peninsula 4km NE of Dingle. It is situated on an elevated site at 50m OD on the lower ENE slopes of Leathaoibh with views S over Dingle Harbour and Mount Brandon to the NE. John O’Donovan, writing in August 1841, recorded that; ‘No part of the walls of the church which bore this name now remains, but its site is pointed out in the graveyard in the townland of Ballyeightragh’ (O’Donovan 1983, 94)'. An interesting account relating to Kildrum by O’Sullivan citing Foley in 1907 recorded; ’It is now nearly one hundred years since the graveyard of Kildrum contained traces of an ancient Christian church in ruins... but owing to people, at hurried interments, occasionally taking stones off its walls, all traces of this church have disappeared. Within this graveyard rest the mortal remains of the holy missionary, Father Herbert, who, in the Irish language, was commonly called An Brathair Rebárdach. Under the pretence of being a wool buyer this friar went amongst the people of the district administering the rites of the Catholic Church, during the darkest days of the penal laws. Here also many interesting monumental headstones and flags are to be found. There are slabs to the memory of two men named Rowland Rice, apparently father and son, one dated 20th April, 1737, and the other, 19th November, 1750’ (O’Sullivan 1931, 398). The old graveyard is studded with around three hundred small unnamed headstones, notched grave markers and cross-slabs that are disposed around the interior. The spatial and density patterning of these gravemarkers most likely reflect the location of the medieval church and also the oval enclosure that is evident on the 1st Ed OS map of 1841. There are no visible, above ground, coherent, remains of the medieval church of Kildrum today. There were no architectural fragments from the church recorded in the course of this survey. This is unusual as generally fragments were reused as burial markers and in the construction of tombs. The small oval graveyard of Kildrum and its associated glebe land is denoted on the 1st Ed. OS map, sheet 43 of 1841. By 1896 the oval enclosure evident on the 1st Ed. Map of 1841 encompassing Kildrum Graveyard had been replaced and the graveyard extended and enclosed by the addition of two boundary walls, making the graveyard more angular and defined. Kildrum old burial ground is also the resting place of John Curran. A modern headstone (84) records: John Curran N.T. Ventry 1852-1935. Archaeologist and Patriot. John Curran was a keen archaeologist and friend of Prof. R.A.S Macalister, Harold Leask and others (Sugrue 2002 www.therussiansarecoming.net). He was a keen oghamist and recorded many archaeological sites on the Dingle Peninsula. His unpublished manuscript Record of the Ancient Monuments on the Promontory of Dingle, Co. Kerry c. 1907-33 is in the OPW, Dublin. His daughter Agnes Curran, 1900-1932, Cumann na mban is also interred in the same family grave. Today, Kildrum has increased slightly with the addition of a modern graveyard section abutting the old burial ground at the SW. The graveyard at Kildrum comprises an old medieval burial ground and a new modern small section attached at the SW. Kildrum graveyard is substantially higher than the outside laneway. The modern section was opened around the mid 1940’s as the two earliest graves (33 & 29) of Patrick Devane and Michael Sears, recorded in the course of this survey, dated to 1946. The old medieval burial ground is in a poor state of repair with several of the forty-one tombs recorded manifest as grassy mounds. Within the old burial ground there are a number of exposed lintelled graves, several of which are open and collapsed. During the recent clearing work in Kildrum a number of the open lintelled graves were covered with old railway sleepers. The presence of seventeen unhewn stones of white quartz in close proximity to the cross slabs and holed stones may reflect re-use of the old burial ground as a ceallúragh or Children’s Burial Ground. The entrance comprises two modern green / black painted iron gates set between a square capped and rendered pier in good order and a modern galvanised pier attached to a stone wall. Entrance at the SW is gained via a pair of matched iron gates set between modern capped piers. The new modern graveyard at Kildrum is enclosed along the access laneway by a high mass-concrete wall, built in two sections one over the other, with the bottom section noticeably battered outwards. Otherwise all the other boundaries of Kildrum, old and new, are enclosed with a drystone wall that varies in height from as low as 0.50m to an average of 1.1m in height, capped with horizontal flagstones. A long section of the old boundary that runs NE-SW beside the laneway is surmounted by a recently installed galvanised iron railing. There are eighteen named tombs in the old medieval burial ground. The majority of them are constructed with local rubble stone and rendered and are generally of the simple box and strong-box variety. Twenty-four unnamed tombs were recorded in the old medieval burial ground. Ten of which are manifest as low grass covered mounds while two others (103 & 128), partially built with red brick, are also heavily covered with grass. There are twenty-three lintelled graves dispersed around the old burial ground partially exposed, open or collapsed. Many of them are marked with unhewn unnamed headstones. Two mid-eighteenth century graveslabs of red sandstone were recorded side by side in the old medieval burial ground at Kildrum. These rectangular low set grave slabs record the deaths of Rowland Rice and his son Rowland Junior in 1737 and 1750 respectively. The inscriptions are situated in the centre of the slabs and read:- Here Lyeth The Body Of Rowland Rice Who Dyed The 20 Aprill 1737. The other inscription reads: Rowland Rice Junior ’Ber The 10th 1750. There are two scroll motifs or peltae on either side of the 1750. This unusual pair of graveslabs, have the IHS monogram set within gabled fields at the top of the slabs, while at the base they have encircled skull and cross-bones motifs. The occurrence of the skull and cross bones motif is uncommon in Kerry graveyards. There were forty-four named headstones recorded at Kildrum graveyard, the vast majority of which are associated with formal grave settings. There were two hundred and eighty nine unnamed headstones (HWN & Appendix 6) in total recorded in the course of this survey. All of the unnamed headstones comprise simple grave markers of unhewn local sandstone and are disposed around the entirety of the old burial ground. There were eighteen notched, unnamed headstones recorded in the course of this survey at Kildrum. They are disposed around the interior of the old burial ground and within the limits of the earlier enclosure denoted on the 1st Ed OS map of 1841. Many of them are difficult to see due to dense grass. All of the notched headstones are simple grave markers of unhewn local sandstone that have a distinct notch on the top of the stone-sometimes with side notches also. These headstones date from the medieval period and are the most basic cross form of burial marker recorded in graveyards. Notched headstones have been recorded by the writer in several graveyards in Kerry and indeed as far away as St. Colman’s Graveyard on Inishbofin Island off the Connemara coast (Dunne 2007). A re-u