Graveyard

The National Monuments Service's description

Indicated on the 1st (1839) ed. OS 6-inch map as an unenclosed sub-rectangular area (dims. c. 24m N-S; c. 27m E-W in the N portion, narrowing to c. 21m in the S portion) and as a triangular area (dims. c. 28m N-S; c. 19m E-W) on the later revision (1899-1902). According to Dan Byran (1966, vol. 19, 59-60) it was situated on a little elevation, just over the stream that divides Dunbell from Holdenstown, about opposite the “avenue” that runs from near Prospect House into the fields towards Holdenstown: It was quite small, unfenced, but surrounded by a ring of old, large, whitethorn bushes. It is understood to have disappeared recently during land reclamation’.
Carrigan (1905, vol. 4, 290) notes that Dunbell had belonged to Jerpoint Abbey until the Dissolution of the Monasteries, after which it became a civil parish. Byran (ibid.) suggests that as a monastic grange it is likely to have had a chapel, which could have been at the location of the graveyard in Holdenstown.

Compiled by: Jean Farrelly

Date of upload: 21 September 2021

References

Carrigan, Rev. W. 1905 (Reprint 1981) The history and antiquities of the diocese of Ossory, 4 vols. Kilkenny. Roberts Books and Wellbrook Press.

Bryan, D. 1966 Dunbell. Old Kilkenny Review 19, 59-60.