Burial Ground, Priorpark, Co. Tipperary
Co. Tipperary |
Burial Grounds
At the northern end of a graveyard in County Tipperary, the ruined shell of Cloghprior Church sits on a gentle rise, surveying undulating countryside that rolls away on all sides.
What makes the enclosure quietly worth attention is the boundary wall itself, or at least part of it. Along the northern stretch, the wall is built from large limestone boulders of what surveyors describe as cyclopean appearance, meaning the stones are massive and rough-hewn, fitted together without mortar in a manner that suggests considerably older craft than the neat rebuilding visible elsewhere around the perimeter.
The graveyard is sub-rectangular in plan, roughly 54 metres north to south and 49 metres east to west, with an 18th or 19th century wall forming most of the enclosure and an entrance gate and stile positioned at the south-west. The northern section of the wall, however, belongs to a different tradition entirely, its oversized limestone blocks standing apart from the later stonework that surrounds them on the other three sides. The church ruins occupy the northern quadrant of the graveyard rather than a central position, which itself hints at a layout that may have shifted or been reinterpreted over the centuries. Cloghprior, the place name, incorporates the Irish word for stone, and the presence of those massive boulders at the northern boundary gives the etymology a certain literal weight.



