What is recorded here

Templemichael is a buried church and graveyard in County Limerick, Ireland, preserved as a shallow grassy oval beside a road. Local memory holds that people died there, were laid to rest there, and were forgotten until cultivation opened the ground in 1819. The church may have belonged to a small community, a passing faith, or a family line that no longer speaks its own name. What remains is not grandeur but rhythm: a place where life was lived, loss was absorbed, and the earth kept its promise of returning what it took.

Situated immediately NE of a road, an area of rough grass SE of the front garden of a newly-built house, on a gentle NW-facing slope with good views to W, N and E. Indicated on the 1923 OS 6-inch map as a sub-oval area (c. 30m E-W; 15m N-S) immediately N of a road. The monument is heavily obscured by grassy vegetation but is evident as a sub-oval area (17m E-W) defined by a scarped edge (Wth 5.5m; H 1.3m). Referred to in the Ordnance Survey Letters as the site of an old church called Teampall Mhíchíl; 'the inhabitants of the place say there was a grave yard here formerly; human bones and old coffins were found in 1819 whilst the ground was dug up when the field was under cultivation' (OSL vol. 2, p. 412). In 1840 the Ordnance Survey Name Books recorded the following; 'The ruins of this church are in a green field, planted with fir trees. it is about 60 [20m] by 30 [10m] feet, is level with the ground, and is covered with grass. It is said to have been an old Friary. The inhabitants also say that is was once surrounded by a spacious graveyard, and this seems confirmed by the discovery of great antiquities of human bones and the remains of coffins in 1819, while the field was being cultivated' (OSNB). Archaeological monitoring under licence No. 02E1588 by Brian Hodkinson of the groundworks for a private house development in the vicinity of a church and enclosure at Templemichael, Caherconlish, revealed no features or deposits of archaeological significance. Compiled by: Denis Power Revised by: Caimin O'Brien Date of revised upload: 31 October 2018

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