What is recorded here

Grave Yard on Clare Island holds a medieval abbey and a 1861 Roman Catholic church within a mortared stone wall, while inscribed graves fill the terrace beside the rocky shoreline. The cross-inscribed pillar stone rises among late 18th- to 20th-century markers, and Toberfelamurry waits a short distance to the northwest. People may have come there to pray, remember, drink from the well or face the sea in grief, but the stones and chamber still keep the island's dead company.

This graveyard encompassing a natural S-facing terrace, 250m N of the rocky shoreline, roughly midway along the S side of Clare Island. It consists of a rectilinear area (54m E-W; 31.5m N-S) enclosed by a mortared stone wall, and is bordered on the W side by a Roman Catholic church, which was built in 1861. Dominating the centre of the graveyard is the medieval abbey (MA085-013001-) consisting of a nave and chancel church with a domestic N wing. Grave plots surround the abbey buildings, with a notably lower density on the N side of the church. The inscribed headstones and graveslabs range in date from late 18th to the 20th century, with the majority being 19th-century in date. A tall, cross-inscribed pillar stone (MA085-013005-) stands in the E half of the graveyard. A holy well (MA085-), named ‘Toberfelamurry’, is located 125m to NW. Compiled by: Jane O'Shaughnessy Date of upload: 1 August 2018

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