Noreen Skehan
I chose Kilcredaun graveyard for my ‘Reading Your Local Landscape’ project work because it is a very old burial ground in my locality, which has many interesting features. It is in a very secluded location, accessible only on foot, and is no longer in use for burials.
Where is Kilcredaun Graveyard?
Location map Kilcredaun graveyard Data from the basemap gallery accessed on the Heritage Maps Viewer at www.heritagemaps.ie 26-6-2023
Entrance stile into graveyard
Kilcredaun graveyard is located approximately 400 metres south of the R463 Bridgetown-Killaloe Road and about two miles from Bridgetown village. Access to the plot is by a right of way through fields. Entry to the burial ground itself is over one of three stiles as there is no gate entry.
How old is this site?
Aerial view of Kilcredaun graveyard
The graveyard is an early Christian site of worship, possibly dating back to the 8/9th century. The presence of bullaun stone, which is regarded as a holy well and a circular enclosure provide evidence for this early date.
The placename ‘Kilcredaun’ suggests the presence of a church (Kil-) connected to a person called Creedon.
Eamonn Mac Piarais, a teacher in Bridgetown School writing in the School Manuscripts Collection in 1934 mentions that the remains of an old church were present on the site
“Part of the walls of the ancient church are still to be seen and the holy water font of the old church is still there. Two very old tomb stones are in the churchyard. They were hewn from a very hard slaty species of rock. They were erected almost one hundred and fifty years ago, and the inscriptions on them are still very legible.”
https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/5177607/5172956
John O Donovan in 1840, described Kilcredaun as follows:
This is a graveyard said to be very ancient in which was a place of worship of old. No part of it now remains. It is in a circular fort planted with fir and oak and few very ancient ash trees. The burial place is about 80 feet in diameter with a holy well in the centre of it. The interior of the well is of a free stone sunk in the earth. It is one foot in diameter and half broad with water in it.
O’Donovan describes a circular enclosure surrounding the graveyard at Kilcredaun.
What remains today?
The graveyard at Kilcredaun is still visited occasionally by locals. The tall beech trees now give the enclosure a sense of peace and quiet. It is well fenced from livestock and while somewhat overgrown with ivy and briars the floor is carpeted with bluebells in springtime.
Holy well with Bullaun stone base and votive offerings on shelf above
A Holy Well, which has a Bullaun stone base, is quite prominent in the graveyard. Bullaun is a term used by archaeologists to describe man-made hollows or basins cut into rock, boulders or small stones. The original purpose of bullaun stones is not known but they have an association with water and worship.
The well is somewhat over grown with ivy and ferns. Not many people visit it today, but the presence of votive offerings such as rosary beads, medals, and holy water bottles indicate some devotion.
It is protected by a rough corbelled covering, resembling a beehive. In the past the well was visited by people with eye complaints. Those seeking a cure did the rounds and said prayers before dawn and washed their eyes with the water.
Coffin rest at Kilcredaun Graveyard
A coffin-rest which is in excellent condition is located at one of the entrances through the graveyard wall. It consists of a flat stone measuring 1.5 metres long by 0.5 metres wide on which the coffin was rested while the bearers entered the graveyard through a stile on either side marked with upright standing flagstones. After passing through the stiles the bearers again lifted the coffin and resumed the final steps of their journey to the grave side.
Who was buried in Kilcredaun?
Headstone dated 1779
The Bridgetown Cemeteries Book records all the inscriptions on the graves in this graveyard. On the one hand the presence of very ornately carved headstones suggests that those interred were from affluent families. However, it is likely that most “peasant” burials would not have been marked with a permanent headstone.
Changes over time
Iconography on headstone in Kilcredaun Graveyard
There are many conflicting details in the literature relating to Kilcredaun graveyard. Some can be attributed to interpretation, but some are probably due to the changes that have taken place during the passage of time. For example, John O’Donovan (O.S. 1840) described the graveyard as being within ‘a circular fort planted with fir and oak and few very ancient ash trees.’ In 2023 the trees are beech, it is not circular, and the size is approximately 160 feet X 160 feet.
Eamon MacPiarais (https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/5177607/5172956) describes “part of the walls of the ancient church are still to be seen and the holy water font of the old church is still there.” Yes, there is a stone wall on the east side of the graveyard but not on the North side where the only stone structure is the coffin-rest. As this boundary wall on the East side of the graveyard is capped with a solid course of stone it has no feature to suggest that it might once have been “part of the walls of the ancient church” and, interestingly, John O’Donovan had not mentioned a church 100 years earlier. It would also appear that MacPiarais may have concluded, with little evidence, that the Bullaun Stone at the base of the Holy Well was the “water font of the old church”. In the same article the author comments “The burial-ground is rectangular in shape”.
The enclosure which is Kilcredaun graveyard today is approximately 5 times greater in area than that described by John O’Donovan (O.S. 1840) and it is closer in shape to rectangular than circular. Since all the old headstones in the graveyard are near each other it is reasonable to conclude that the “burial place 80 feet in diameter” described by John O’Donovan in 1840 was expanded later by the building of a wall on the Eastern boundary. In the meantime, the Oaks had been removed and were later replaced by Beech. This explanation would also be consistent with the change of shape from circular to rectangular.
No Comments
Add a comment about this page