Burial ground

The National Monuments Service's description

The Ordnance Survey Memorandums of 1825-43 contains a letter from Lieutenant R. Fenwick to Lieutenant T. Larcom concerning the presence of an 'old burying ground' on the Hill of Uisneach. The letter recorded the following details; 'close to the two houses near to the site of the small lough (WM024-064001-) E. of the [trig station] are 3 walls (also of stone and lime) belong to some ancient building, they are 5 ft. [1.5m] high and 3 ft. [0.9m] wide. The people belonging to the house say that they are the walls of an "old castle or monastery". North of the houses at the levelling point 563 [ft. marked on 1837 ed. OS map] they point out the site of an old burying ground but now quite obliterated, the ground is ploughed up & no traces whatever remain. Can this be the monastery mentioned by Lanigan in Vol. IV page 37, as the place where the synod was held in 1111 - the masonry appears to be of that era'. O'Donovan wrote in the OS Letters that 'the churchyard referred to by Mr. Fenwick I take to be the site of the church of "Eachy Uisnigh" mentioned in the Irish Calendar. Would it not be curious to mark it: Site of Old Church and Churchyard'. In 1837 John O'Donovan wrote the following about a possible church site on the Hill of Uisneach; 'It would also appear from the Calendar of the O'Clery's that an early saint of the name Eochy had built a little church or hermitage on this hill of Uisneach, but no traces of a church was pointed out to me. Mr Fenwick mentions a churchyard just effaced' (OSL 14.G.13.12 (20/21) ).
Situated on a slight S-facing slope to SE of the summit of the Hill of Ushnagh, in pasture with excellent views to N, E and S. This burial ground is to N of a possible church (WM024-064003-) and overlooks a ritual pond (WM024-064002-) to the immediate SSE. Monument described in 1971-1983 as a subrectangular-shaped area (dims. 35.5m E-W) defined by a bank and field walls and an outer fosse. A low earthen bank incorporating small rock outcrops and with several slight disturbance gaps is present along the S side only. The bank joins up with another bank at SE which extends a few metres to SSE and then turns to E. There are vague traces of an outer fosse along the S side. The other sides of this burial ground are enclosed by stone built field walls and it is essentially now a small field. The original entrance is not recognisable. The surface of the interior is quite rough and there are some rock outcrops and other stones within and there is much outcrop surrounding the site. There are no indications of any graves or gravemarkers.

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

Revised by: Alison McQueen, Vera Rahilly and Caimin O’Brien

Date of revised upload: 13 August 2019

References

Lanigan, J. 1822 An ecclesiastical history of Ireland, Vol. 4. Printed by D. Graisberry. Dublin.

OSL - Ordnance Survey Letters. Letters written by members of the Ordnance Survey's 'Topographical Department' (T. O'Conor, A. O'Curry, E. Curry, J. O'Donovan and P. O'Keeffe) sent to headquarters from the field (1834-41). MSS in Royal Irish Academy.

OS Memorandums - A heterogeneous collection of letters and queries relating chiefly to orthography arranged in county volumes, dating mostly from 1825-43, emanating principally from Lieutenant T. Larcom, officer in charge at the Ordnance Survey Office, and replies made by the Royal Engineer officers in the field or their staff, including George Petrie and John O'Donovan. Manuscripts in National Archives of Ireland.