Grave Yard — Fionntrá

Ventry Church/Teampall Fionntrá or Teampall Chaitlíona: The parish church of Ventry (KE052-119----) is included in the Papal Taxation list (1302-1307) for the diocese of Ardfert (Cal Docs Ire, V, 297). In 1398 the church was the subject of a dispute with 'Patrick Treawnt', a priest of the diocese, unlawfully detaining it (Cal Pap Reg, 5, 106). It appears to have continued in use however throughout the medieval period and in 1633 it was under the patronage of Maurice Trant (TCD Ms 2158, 36). The church was in ruins by 1756 (Smith, 71). In 2010 a graveyard survey carried out by Laurence Dunne recorded the following details: 'Ventry Graveyard is situated on the western shore of Ventry Harbour on the SW tip of the Dingle Peninsula in West Kerry. Its exposed situation on the shore has caused much erosion and movement of sand at the site over the years. In 1841 when John O’Donovan inspected the site he was unable to measure the height of the remains of the doorway on the north wall of the ruined church (KE052-119----) due to the build-up of sand (O’Donovan 1983, 91). No coherent remains of the church are visible above ground today. However, a raised platform area of the graveyard at the eastern limits possibly reflects the basal remains of the medieval church. In the course of this survey of Ventry Graveyard seventeen architectural fragments of the medieval church were recorded of which fifteen were reused as headstones and three were inscribed with crosses. The old medieval graveyard of Ventry is bounded by a drystone wall of locally derived uncoursed rubble sandstone, capped by coarse gravel cement. Sections of capping are missing from a few areas and one or two walling breaches have been poorly patched up and require proper repair. There are two gate entrances to Ventry Graveyard, the first at the new section and the second directly into the old burial ground at the SE. The gates into the old Ventry graveyard comprise modern green painted galvanised gates set between two square capped and rendered piers and are tied with cord. A broken step-stile survives beside the LH pier as one approaches from the road. Eleven named tombs were recorded dispersed around the old medieval burial ground generally in good state of preservation. Only one unnamed tomb was recorded. Two hundred and eighty named headstones were recorded in Ventry Graveyard associated with formal grave settings. Of these one hundred and fifty five are within the new graveyard section while other modern grave settings in the old graveyard are generally disposed around the perimeter but not exclusively so. There were one hundred and fifty six unnamed headstones (HWN & Appendix 4) in total recorded in the course of this survey. All of the unnamed headstones are simple grave markers of unhewn local sandstone. These unhewn headstones are distributed around the old Ventry Graveyard only and are impossible to date without excavation. There were nineteen notched, unnamed headstones recorded in the course of this survey at Ventry. They are disposed around the centre of the old graveyard only and many of them are difficult to see due to the grass and their often low above ground register. All of the notched headstones are simple grave markers of unhewn local sandstone that have a distinct notch on the top of the stone and sometimes with side notches also. These headstones date from the medieval period and are the simplest un-inscribed cross form of burial marker in medieval 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. A re-used notched gravestone was excavated by the writer from the base of a slab-lined grave in Smerwick (Dunne 2005) while thirteen others were recorded in nearby Raheenyhooig Graveyard in Burnham Demesne. One of the notched stones has been incorporated as a foot stone in tomb 516. These unhewn notched headstones form a particular type of medieval grave marker and are relatively unknown and little studied aspect of medieval funerary practice. Twelve previously un-recorded cross-slabs were recorded in Ventry Graveyard. They are disposed around the old graveyard area only. Eleven are incised on local sandstone while the twelfth (391) is slate and lightly incised with a Latin cross with T-bar terminals. Five cross-slabs (189, 194, 270, 285 and 480) are incised with small equal-armed crosses. One of which (285) is incised on a shouldered type cross form while another (480) in incised on a punch dressed fragment of medieval masonry originally from the church. Two cross-slabs (269 and 434) have similar lightly incised crosses of equal arms and diagonal lines connecting the side arms to the top of the cross creating gable shaped crosses. Cross-slab 434 is also notched. A variant form of the previous two is cross-slab 188 that comprises an equal-armed cross with expanded terminals set within a kite shaped plane on a similar kite shaped slab. Over the motif are the letters R.I.P. A cross-in-circle is also inscribed on another stone (283). The arms and shafts are further crossed near their ends forming four other small crosses. Over the cross are the letters R.I.P. A small rather crudely and deeply incised squat cross with a bulbous base to its shaft (164) is also found on another possible fragment of masonry from the medieval church. Cross-slab (436) is inscribed with a small Tau cross on its uppermost limits. The cross has down-turns to both arms and a T-bar to the base of the shaft. The cross-slab lies loosely on the surface. It is apparent that at least three of the crosses are inscribed on re-used medieval fragments of masonry from the church and therefore they cannot be dated earlier than 1650 or indeed up to 1750 AD as it was within that period that the church became ruinous. Two others are possibly also quite late in that they have the letters R.I.P over their motifs, unless of course they were added later. A cross-slab from Kilmalkedar also has R.I.P above a small equal-armed cross with expanded terminals (Cuppage 1986, 320 & 322). Tau crosses (436) are generally regarded as early forms and are dated to the early medieval period as indeed are the Latin crosses with T-bar terminals (391). Furthermore the small equal-armed cross on the roughly shaped stone cross (285) would also not be out of place in an early medieval context. Furthermore there are no real parallels for the two gable type crosses on slabs (269 & 434). However, at present it would appear from preliminary research that the crosses could date from the early medieval period to the post-medieval period up the 18th century' (Dunne 2010, 2-13). The above description is derived from J. Cuppage, ‘Corca Dhuibhne. Dingle Peninsula archaeological survey. Ballyferriter. Oidhreacht Chorca Dhuibhne’ (1986), no. 997. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Revised by: Caimin O'Brien Date of revised upload: 14 June 2022