Graveyard

The National Monuments Service's description

Associated with a church (LF023-032001-). This subrectangular graveyard (72m NNW-SSE; 66m ENE-WSW) is enclosed by a modern-looking, narrow, straight-sided bank of earth and stone (Wth 1.9-3.1m; H 0.4-1.2m) and an external narrow, steep-sided, flat-bottomed, partially waterlogged fosse (Wth 1-1.8m; D 1.1m; 1.6m). The inner face of the bank is stone faced at NE. Access is via a wrought-iron gate at the N end of the NW wall and short lengths of stone walls have been built on either side of it. On its N side there is a stone stile, the uppermost step of which consists of a fragment of a late-medieval round window head. Just beside the stile, the octagonal shaft of a possible cross (LF023-032004-) has been cemented onto the top of the wall and a stoup (Lennon 2005), probably also from the church, has been incorporated into the fabric of the wall. The interior of the graveyard is uneven and poorly drained. A fosse that is evident in the SE quadrant may be the remains of ‘a broad low earthen bank with wide shallow external fosse' noted in 1977 (SMR file) and it most likely defined the graveyard prior to the construction of the present graveyard wall. Decipherable memorials date from the 19th and 20th centuries. According to local tradition, it was the burial ground of the O'Farrells of Ardanragh (Farrell 1891, 326).

Compiled by: Patrick F. O'Donovan, Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 4 June 2013