Graveyard

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated in pasture, on the W-facing slope of a N-S ridge in undulating countryside, on the landscaped demesne of Johnstown House located 300m to NW. The name Killodiernan is translated as the church of O'Tiernan and the Cill placename may suggest an early medieval date for the church site (Clyne 1984, 44). Killodiernan Romanesque church (TN009-040001-) stands in N quadrant of D-shaped graveyard with straight side at W. A seventeenth-century mortuary chapel containing the chest-tomb of Dean Denis Harty, Bishop of Killaloe who died in 1667 (TN009-040004-) was built against the E gable of the church. The D- shaped graveyard (approx. dims. 64m N-S; 55m E-W) is enclosed by a nineteenth-century wall with eighteenth and nineteenth-century headstones. Traces of an early Christian monastic enclosure (TN009-0040003-) surround the church and graveyard are visible from NE through E to SE. The graveyard wall curves from N through E to SE possibly following the line of a second inner ecclesiastical enclosure (Clyne 1984, 46).

Compiled and revised by: Caimin O'Brien.

Date of revised upload: 13 October 2020

References

Clyne, M. 1984 Romanesque carvings at Killodiernan, Co. Tipperary. North Munster Antiquarian Journal 16, 44-53.