Flat cemetery

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on SE edge of a plateau overlooking the Vartry River to the E. The 'Moat' was described in 1838 by John O'Donovan as a ‘remarkable round and pretty high hillock which they call a moate, but which, however, has no sign or vestige of a moate on or about it’ (O'Flanagan 1928, 81). It is depicted as a steep side hillock on the 1838 ed. OS 6-inch map with OS trig. station marking spot height of 907 ft. OD on the summit of the mound. The revised 1907 ed. OS 25-inch map shows that by this time a gravel pit had been opened in the W quadrant of the hillock and that the profile of the earthwork had been severely altered. This earthwork was visited in 1989 and described as a 'natural sand deposit whose interior has been almost completely removed through quarrying leaving a flat central area (dims. 160m E-W x 120m N-S)surrounded by the undug edge of the natural mound. No trace of any artificial features other than those created by quarrying (discontinued)' (ASI Field Report 09/11/1989). Two urn burials discovered in 1981 when they were exposed on the E side in the section of a natural hillock known locally as 'Sutton's Moat' (Cahill and Sikora 2011, Vol. 1, 656-63). Local folklore from Calary National School recorded that 'The Moate in front of my home was believed to be a "Fairy-Moate" (The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0912, Page 239).

Compiled by: Claire Breen

Revised by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 24 July 2012

References

O'Flanagan, Rev. M. (Compiler) 1928 Letters containing information relative to the antiquities of the county of Wicklow collected during the progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1838. Bray.

Cahill, M. and Sikora, M. (eds) 2011 Breaking ground, finding graves - reports on the excavations of burials by the National Museum of Ireland, 1927-2006, 2 vols. Dublin. Wordwell Ltd. in association with the National Museum of Ireland.