It is believed that there has been a church on this site since 528 AD. In 1148 Donough O'Carroll, King of Oriel, established St Mary's Priory, however the present ruins date to the 13th century. Prior to that, the church was subjected to near constant damage and attack, with deliberate fires razing it in 1152, 1160 and again in 1166.

St. Mary's Abbey Cemetery consists of graves within and adjacent to the ruins of St. Mary's Abbey on the outskirts of Louth Village. The location is shown on Google Maps as "Louth Churches and Oratory." The cemetery can be reached by way of a footpath from a local road just to the south of the site.

Locating graves in the cemetery is a difficult proposition as the site has largely been surrendered to nature and now features tall grass, damaged gravestones and uneven ground. Many of the gravestones still standing have deteriorated to the point of being unreadable. Fortunately, gravestone inscriptions were recorded in 1980, to the extent possible, and preserved in the County Louth Archaeological and Historical Journal.

The site of the cemetery is noteworthy as the location of a monastery founded by St. Mochta in the sixth century. The monastery was regarded as one of the great ecclesiastical centers of Ireland during the Middle Ages.



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