Survey Data
Reg No
50030312
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Archaeological, Artistic, Social
Original Use
Graveyard/cemetery
In Use As
Graveyard/cemetery
Date
1200 - 1860
Coordinates
319506, 236459
Date Recorded
14/12/2014
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Irregular-plan graveyard, established c. 1300, having ruined church of c. 1610 and inscribed gravestones and markers from eighteenth century to present date, tarmacadam paths, and gable-fronted limestone pedestrian entrance of c. 1840 to south-east corner. Rubble limestone boundary walls having curved coping stones. Gateway has pitched slate roof with cut stone copings and finials, Tudor arch opening with pavior, decorative cast-iron double-leaf gate, cut stone jambs and flanking buttresses with plinths, snecked dressed limestone to gable and plain shield device, and stone flag floor to interior. Recent flat-roofed store to one side of gateway. Graveyard set back from west side of Castle Avenue, located north-east of Clontarf Castle.
Appraisal
This graveyard predates the early seventeenth-century church. Although it is a Church of Ireland graveyard it has a number of Catholic burials from the period before Emancipation. It is still used by families with established plots. It creates an interesting group, contextualises the ruined church, and forms part of a larger group of related structures that include Clontarf Castle and the nineteenth-century Church of St. John the Baptist. The fine pedestrian gateway links it stylistically with these other structures. The graveyard contains a number of well-sculpted grave markers of considerable artistic interest and is of historical interest as the resting place of many notable individuals.