Grave Yard — An Ghairfeanaigh

Garfinny Church/Teampall na Gairfeanaí: The site of a 13th century parish church (Cal Docs Ire, V, 297). In 1615 both 'the church and chancel of Garryffyagh were up' (Royal Visitation), but the building was in ruins by 1756 (Smith, 70). In 1841 only section of the E gable, 1.37m thick, stood to a maximum height of 3.66m; the E window, set internally in a rectangular embrasure, was partially preserved and had a pointed sandstone head (OSL). No visible remains of the church survive. It stood in a graveyard c. 1.5km ENE of Dingle; the site is now a National Monument (no.64/2). In 2010 a graveyard survey carried out by Laurence Dunne recorded the following details about Garfinny graveyard: 'Garfinny Graveyard is situated on the S side of the Dingle Peninsula circa 4km E of Dingle. It is situated on an elevated site at 50m OD on the lower SE slopes of the Sugar Loaf hill of the Slieve Mish Mountains with expansive southerly views over Trabeg, Dingle Bay and the Iveragh Peninsula in the background. No physical remains of the medieval church are visible above ground today. The small partially enclosed rectangular graveyard [KE043-228001-] of Garfinny and its associated glebe land is denoted on the 1st Ed. OS map, sheet 43 of 1841. The medieval church, now disappeared, is clearly denoted as a rectangular hatched area. John O’Donovan, writing in August 1841, records: ’There is here a large burial ground on a sloping tract near a hill to the north-east (O’Donovan 1983, 131). In the OSNB of 1841 O’Donovan records: ‘Garfinny Church situated in the centre of the townland of Garfinny and about three chains N.W. of an old road leading thro’ this land. The only part of this ruin [KE043-228----] now standing, which is of very old structure is the E gable, in height about 12 feet and the same breadth at its base. It is placed on a green rocky eminence in the centre of a spacious graveyard about three chains long and two and a half broad without any enclosure, except the E, W & S sides which are distinguished by the ruin of stone ditch or Fosse' (OSNB). There are no visible, above ground, coherent, remains of the medieval church of Garfinny today. The last record of the visible ruins of the church at Garfinny was in 1841 (O’Donovan 1983, 131; OSNB 1841). There were only two architectural fragments (260 & 296) from the church recorded in the course of this survey. One of the fragments (260) is reused as a gravemarker and features a large notch in one side, possibly originally used as a door socket in the church? The other architectural fragment (296) is a featured in the front of an overgrown unnamed tomb (295). It comprises of an ogee head of a narrow single light window of local red sandstone and is almost identical to another recorded in Ballyduff Graveyard recently. A concentration of early graves within a somewhat raised platform area of the interior may reflect the location of the medieval church. The entrance comprises two modern black painted iron gates set between two square rendered piers with gabled capping in excellent order. A recently installed squeeze stile is provided beside the LH or western gate pier. An older and now disused step-stile is situated beside it. The graveyard at Garfinny is enclosed by a drystone wall caped with large flagstones laid flat. The boundary wall is in good order for the most part however there are sections that are partially collapsed and in need of repair. Garfinny Graveyard is served by a single wide gravelled pathway that circulates around the burial ground in a loop. There are fifty-one named tombs in Garfinny Graveyard. The majority of them are constructed with local rubble stone and rendered and are generally of the simple box variety. None are ashlar. Forty-eight unnamed tombs were recorded in the Garfinny. Thirty-six of which are manifest as low grass covered mounds. There are twenty-three lintelled graves dispersed around Garfinny Graveyard. Many are partially exposed, open or collapsed. Several of them are marked with unhewn unnamed headstones while lintelled grave (265) is marked with a medieval architectural fragment 260. Two 19th century graveslabs (174 & 470) were recorded in the old medieval burial ground at Garfinny. There were forty-nine named headstones recorded at Garfinny Graveyard, the majority of which are associated with formal grave settings. There were seventy-four unnamed headstones (HWN’s 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 seven notched, unnamed headstones (Appendix 7 & Figure 5) recorded in the course of this survey at Garfinny. They are disposed around the interior of the medieval area of the graveyard. Fourteen previously unrecorded cross-slabs or simple cross inscribed headstones were plotted and recorded in Garfinny. These crosses comprise eight small unhewn stones inscribed with crosses (59, 61, 63, 77, 95, 203, 530 and 708); five 18th / 19th century cross inscribed slabs (98, 130, 347, 449 & 712) and one late stone cross (181). A single holed-stone, (447), was recorded within the medieval burial ground area at Garfinny. There were two architectural fragments (260 & 296) recorded at Garfinny Graveyard. Architectural fragment 260, 0.96m x 0.36m x 0.11m, stands upright as a gravemarker to a lintelled grave (265). The sandstone slab has a large oval notch near the top of one side possibly indicating that it was used as a hinge socket stone in the medieval church. Two similar examples were recorded at Dunurlin medieval church (Dunne 2010). The second fragment is the head of an ogee window (296) reused in the construction of tomb (295) in the medieval section of Garfinny Graveyard (Plates 12, 19-20). The ogee window head most likely dates from the 15th century' (Dunne 2010, 1-18). The above description is derived from J. Cuppage, ‘Corca Dhuibhne. Dingle Peninsula archaeological survey. Ballyferriter. Oidhreacht Chorca Dhuibhne’ (1986), no. 992. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. See attached photographs courtesy of Laurence Dunne Revised by: Caimin O'Brien based on details provided by Laurence Dunne Date of revised upload: 29 June 2022