Graveyard

The National Monuments Service's description

Known locally as Drumrat graveyard after the parish in which it is located. A trapezoidal area (50m N-S; 40m E-W at N end; 55m E-W at S end) enclosed by a stone wall, with modern vertical stone-coping, on the E and S sides; the wall dates to 1831 (pers. comm. M. A. Timoney). The W and N boundaries were removed when the graveyard was extended. There is a disused entrance gate at the SE corner and a modern entrance at the W end of the S wall. Headstones date from the mid-18th century to the present day and there are a few chest-tombs and numerous low uninscribed grave-markers, many of which were re-set in 1987 (pers. comm. M. B. Timoney). The graveyard is still in use. The remains of the late medieval parish church of Drumrat (SL039-074001-) lie in the N half. Four cross-slabs (SL039-074006-; SL039-074011-; SL039-074012-; SL039-074013-), only one of which is in situ, were located to the SE and S of the church. A fragment of a horizontal millstone (SL039-074007-) is embedded in concrete on top of a pile of stones on the W side of a chest-tomb adjacent to the external S wall. A bullaun stone (SL039-074009-) from Killined townland c. 2.3km to the S, reused as a stoup, is fixed adjacent to the modern entrance. Portions of quernstones (SL039-074004-; SL039-074005-) which were found in this graveyard are all in the NMI (M. B. Timoney 2001b, 50-54). This graveyard may be within an ecclesiastical enclosure (SL039-074010-).

The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Sligo' compiled by Ursula Egan, Elizabeth Byrne, Mary Sleeman with Sheila Ronan and Connie Murphy (Dublin Stationery Office, 2005).

Date of upload: 18 January 2008