Graveyard

The National Monuments Service's description

In undulating grassland, located on a low elevation, with a gradual fall of ground for 100m to S to the banks of the Rathroe River, which marks the townland boundary. Overlooked to W by rising ground. This graveyard is named ‘Kilfian’ on the 1838 OS 6-inch map, and is indicated as a polygonal enclosed area (c. 30m NNW–SSE; c. 40m ENE-WSW), accessed at the NW corner by a N-S road. Its depiction on the 1923 edition, where it is named ‘Kilfian Burial Gd.’, indicates that the graveyard was extended to N, doubling in length to a roughly rectangular area, and a further extension to N took place in the latter half of the 20th century.
The oldest part of the graveyard, in the S part of its current extent, occupies slightly elevated ground and is grass-covered. It is enclosed at E, S and W by a mortared stone wall capped with concrete. The original access road is preserved in the line of a grassed-over path incorporated into the W side of the 20th-century extension. The old graveyard is distinguished by a concentration of mid-to-late 18th- and early 19th-century graveslabs and 19th-century headstones, some standing at the head of rectangular plots outlined by a low concrete kerb. The earliest inscription noted is on a graveslab dated 1762. Interspersed amongst the formal headstones and graveslabs, are many informal gravemarkers consisting of low, roughly rectangular or irregular-shaped uninscribed stones, set in N−S rows, many barely protruding above the grass. There is no visible trace of a church (MA021-035001-). There is a cross-slab (MA021-035003-) in the E half of the old graveyard.

Compiled by: Jane O'Shaughnessy

Date of upload: 17 May 2016