Tamlaght old Graveyard,

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

The ruins consist of a long rectangular nave 18½ metres long by 7½ wide over the external walls. The long axis of the ruins runs east/west. At the NW corner there is an outshot about 2½ metres square thought by some to be the base of a tower. The ruinous walls are approximately 1.2 metres high and the east gable has been rebuilt and a pointed window incorporated in it. Not far from the east end there is what may be a door opening in the north wall. The ruins are close-by the Bessbrook river. The graveyard encloses about 0.3 hectares and is filled with old and some very recent headstones, one was deciphered as Jane Ritchie d. 1832. Access to the site is by a gate between 2 tall square whinstone piers similar to those at Walworth.

Historical information

A church was founded here in 1585 by Colmcille and Finlough (Finlagan) was placed in charge. With the 12th century reform of the Irish Church it is likely that the foundation of Tamlaght-Finlagan became a parish church sometime after the synods of Kells and Rathbreasil and possibly in the 13th century. Whether this church was used by the seventeenth century planters is a matter for speculation but it is interesting to note that the survivor of the Spanish Armada Cuellar states ‘that the majority of the headstones in the graveyard and within the ruins are Protestant which would suggest that the church may have been restored for use in the early 17th century before the church at Walworth was built'.

Reference: P Donnelly, The Great Church of the Roe

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Picturesque church ruins and graveyard. Church foundation 6th century and rebuilt in subsequent centuries and probably reconstructed in the early 17th century.