Templemurry Grave Yard — Rathfran

This graveyard encompasses a hillock located at the shoreline on the inner tidal reaches of the Palmerstown River estuary. The graveyard is named ‘Templemurry Grave Yard’ on the 1838 and 1922 OS 6-inch maps. On the 1838 edition it is indicated as a roughly D-shaped area (c. 60m NW−SE; c. 40m NE−SW), delineated by a curving dashed line; by the time of the 1922 edition, the graveyard had been expanded to W and the E, and was enclosed by a straight wall at N and E. Later in the 20th-century it was further expanded to N and NE to its current extent, bordered at N by a concrete wall, at E by a mortared stone wall and defined along the SW side by the shoreline scarp. The oldest part of the graveyard, which incorporates a ruined medieval church (MA015-031001-), is located on the level top of the hillock, an area of about 30m in diameter, but it also extends down the S and SW-facing slopes where the ground falls away towards the shoreline. There is a high density of graves, many of which are marked by low, uninscribed upright stone markers, with the outline of some graves indicated by low rectangular heaps small stones. Intermixed with these, are formal 18th- and 19th-century headstones, ledgers, and a small number of box and table tombs, as well as a few burial plots enclosed by a low wall or wrought-iron railings. The ground surface is uneven, with areas of surface subsidence that have disturbed or displaced some gravemarkers. The oldest part of the graveyard is densely vegetated with long grass, ivy and moss, and there is a line of impenetrable overgrowth at the base of the slope, bordering the shoreline. Such overgrowth may not have been a problem in 1898, when visitors to the graveyard complained that ‘certainly it is not much to the credit of the Killala Poor-Law Guardians that they still permit the bullocks of graziers to roam freely over its graves.’ (Proceedings, ‘The Excursion’. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 1898, vol. 28, 293). There is asouterrain (MA015-031004-) in the NW slope of the hillock, on the N edge of the oldest part of the graveyard; a holy well (MA015-031003-) is located downslope at the W limits of the graveyard, and a medieval friary (MA015-031005-) is located 140m to W. Attached images: MA015-031002-_01.JPG Highest part of the graveyard, just W of the church MA015-031002-_02.JPG Box tomb MA015-031002-_03.JPG Summit of the hill. Rathfran abbey visible in distance. MA015-031002-_04.JPG 19th-century graveslab MA015-031002-_05.JPG Early 19th-century headstone Compiled by: Jane O'Shaughnessy Date of upload: 23 October 2018