Graveyard

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on a low rise of ground 60m NE of Rinardoo Bay on the E shoreline of Lough Ree with a stream marking the townland boundary with Killinure immediately to S. Depicted on the 1838 ed. OS 6-inch map as a roughly D-shaped 'Grave Yard' (approx. dims. 58m N-S x 66m E-W) standing in the S quadrant of a field called the 'Church Park' with motte castle (WM022-015----) immediately to S. On the 184 map a tomb is shown located in the S quadrant of the graveyard. This graveyard appears to have been built in the bailey of the motte castle (WM022--015---) which in turn may have been built on the site of an early Christian ecclesiastical enclosure (WM022-014002-). A church building (WM022-014003-) now levelled may have stood inside the graveyard. On the revised 1914 ed. OS 6-inch map a smaller rectangular shaped burial ground (approx. dims. 21m N-S x 16m E-W) belonging to the Smyth family of Portlick Castle is depicted standing in the centre of the D-shaped graveyard. This drystone walled burial ground belonging to the Smyth family incorporates architectural fragments of a late medieval building possibly from a church which stood inside the earlier graveyard. An early Christian cross-slab (WM022-014004-) now housed in the National Museum of Ireland was recently discovered in the fabric of this burial ground wall (Reilly 2016, 113). A possible bullaun stone (WM022-016---) and cross (WM022-017----) are located 120m and 165m respectively to the S. The confiscated Dillon estate of Portlick Castle amounting to 356 acres was granted to Thomas Keightly, a member of the Privy Council of Ireland who sold the lands of Portlick, Whinnings, Cartron and ⅓ of the Great Island to William Palmer of Dublin. In 1703 Reverend Robert Smyth of Dublin purchased the lands of Portlick Castle amounting to 190 acres (Sheehan 1978, 68).
The Ordnance Survey Name Books recorded the following about Portlick graveyard, it stated that ‘this is a very old burial ground & it is about 3 chains [60m] wide by 330 links [66m]. In it stands a tomb’ (OSNB No. 5, 22). A recent inspection of the graveyard by Reilly (2016, 119) also uncovered fragments of two rotary quern stones. The fragments, consisting of a portion of an upper and a lower quernstone, both of red sandstone conglomerate, were found lying near the enclosing earthen bank SW of the graveyard wall about 3m apart.

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 31 July 2017

References

Reilly, D. 2016 Miscellany: A newly discovered early Christian cross-slab from Portlick, Co. Westmeath. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 144, 113-21.

Sheehan, J. 1978 South Westmeath: farm and folk. Blackwater.

OSNB - Ordnance Survey Name Books. Pro-forma books arranged by Civil Parish for recording townland and other name-forms and compiled in the course of the OS 6-inch survey 1824-1841. The name books also include minor names and incidental references to antiquities. National Archives of Ireland.