Graveyard, Cloonmore, Co. Mayo

Co. Mayo |

Burial Grounds

Graveyard, Cloonmore, Co. Mayo

On a low ridge in County Mayo, a small graveyard occupies most of the level ground at the hill's eastern end, its boundaries so absorbed into the landscape that they are barely distinguishable from the pasture around them.

The enclosure is subrectangular, roughly 29 metres east to west and 27 metres north to south, defined by a low sod-covered stone bank. On the western and northern sides this boundary is still legible; on the east it has merged with a field wall, and on the south it simply dissolves into the natural slope of the hill.

What makes the site quietly remarkable is the density of what it contains, and how little of it announces itself. In the northern half of the enclosure stand the remains of a medieval church, reduced now to ruins. In the southern half, a small rectangular arrangement of stones and slabs may be the outline of a grave, though the ground offers few certainties. Scattered across the sod are low stones protruding at irregular angles, possibly grave markers, possibly not. Just 12 metres to the west, built into what is now a field boundary, lies a souterrain, an underground stone-lined passage of the kind typically associated with early medieval settlement, used for storage or refuge. Its presence so close to the graveyard suggests a longer and more layered history of occupation on this ridge than the quiet pasture now implies.

The whole complex sits in farmland, and the enclosure wall, where it survives, is low enough to be easily overlooked. The souterrain is incorporated into the western field boundary rather than sitting apart from it, which means the most structurally interesting element of the site is also the least visually obvious. Visitors approaching across the pasture would do well to look west before turning their attention to the church.

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Pete F
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