Today we are back in Co. Clare in west Ireland, What I find intriguing about KilmurryIbrickane Church ruins and graveyard is the road that divides the site in two.
Extract from County Clare Heritage.
According to a local historian with fantastic knowledge of the area, the local landlord demanded that the bodies were dug up and moved in order to accommodate the construction of the road. This means that the graveyard was in existence before the road.
Griffiths Valuation of Tenements shows that Charles McDonnell was the landlord of Kilmurry in 1855. One could suppose he was the landlord who made this order to inter the remains of the deceased and to install this road for his personal use. But because we don’t have any earlier records I cannot verify this as a fact.
Unfortunately, the Down survey maps of 1711 were destroyed in a fire and so we do not know the size of the graveyard in the 1700s. I find this story harrowing and can’t begin to imagine the upset it cause the surviving relatives.
#cemetery #mausoleum #necropolis #serenitysue #tombs #unique