Grave Yard — Meelick (gallen By.)

In pasture, located on the E end of a low hill, with good views of the surrounding pastureland. This graveyard is depicted on the 1838 OS 6-inch map as a rectangular walled area (c. 45m ENE–WSW; c. 36m NNW–SSE); by the time of the 1931 edition, it had expanded to its current subrectangular extent (49m ENE–WSW; c. 72m NNW–SSE). It is enclosed by a mortared stone wall, with two gated entrances in the W wall. The oldest part of the graveyard, in the S half, encompasses the level top of the hill, and has an undulating, grass-covered surface. Stones protruding from the scarped S-facing slope may be part of an early enclosing wall, predating the current S wall of the graveyard. This part of the graveyard encloses the site of a church (MA071-028001-), a round tower (MA071-028003-) and a cross slab (MA071-028004-). Here, there is a scatter of 20th century grave plots with headstones, a few 19th century headstones and ledgers, and several low, uninscribed informal stone gravemarkers in roughly N−S rows. A rectangular enclosure/ grave plot (5.7m E–W; 6.1m N-S), enclosed by a stone wall (T 0.45m; H 0.9m), abuts the inner face of the graveyard wall at E; it appears to be 19th-century in date. The ground shelves down gently to N from the older, higher part of the graveyard, to the more level N half, which has a dense concentration of 20th-century grave plots laid out in close set rows. A number of architectural fragments (MA071-028004-), which are built into the graveyard wall at SE, are likely to have come from the church. The graveyard is bordered to W by a road, to W of which there is a modern graveyard. Attached images: MA071-028002-_01.JPG Graveyard with round tower viewed from N MA071-028002-_02.JPG Older, higher part of graveyard, viewed from W MA071-028002-_03.JPG Older, higher part of graveyard, viewed from E MA071-028002-_04.JPG Lower part of the graveyard, viewed from S Compiled by: Jane O'Shaughnessy Date of upload: 21 June 2018