What is recorded here

St Johnston Old Graveyard holds a roofless church built in 1622 by Sir John Stewart Kent, who spent one hundred pounds but left the structure incomplete when midsummer came and went. Thomas Bruce repaired the old parish church in 1627, suggesting the new building at St. Johnstown still lacked a roof while people continued burying their dead around its bare walls. Successive graves raised the ground in uneven mounds, and that strange layered height remains visible today.

In 1622, the parish church (DG063-003001-) of Taughboyne was 'decayed and the reedifying of the same has been stayed by Sir John Stewart Kent, who obtained a warrant at the Council Table to build a new church, himself laying out £100 towards the building ... at St. Johnstown which church should be finished this midsummer 1622, but is not above the side walls yet' (Royal Commission, 213). As 'the parish church was repaired in 1627, by the rector, Thomas Bruce, it would appear that the church at St. Johnstown remained roofless. A tradition to this effect was recorded by Fagan in 1846 (Bk. 11, 7-8). The interior is very overgrown and successive burials have resulted in varying ground levels both within the church and in the graveyard (DG063-003002-) around it. The above description was derived from the 'Archaeological Survey of County Donegal. A description of the field antiquities of the County from the Mesolithic Period to the 17th century.' Compiled by: Brian Lacey with Eamon Cody, Claire Cotter, Judy Cuppage, Noel Dunne, Vincent Hurley, Celie O'Rahilly, Paul Walsh and Seán Ó Nualláin (Lifford: Donegal County Council, 1983). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated. Date of upload: 22 September 2008

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