Ecclesiastical enclosure, Morrissysland, Co. Wexford

Co. Wexford |

Ecclesiastical Sites

Ecclesiastical enclosure, Morrissysland, Co. Wexford

At Morrissysland in County Wexford, a graveyard has quietly overrun its own boundaries.

What began as a church and burial ground contained within a subcircular ecclesiastical enclosure, roughly 160 metres across east to west and 140 metres north to south, has expanded until the graves now fill the entire enclosed area. The enclosure itself, defined by stone walls and hedges on a crest of an east-facing slope, is a shape that speaks to early Christian practice in Ireland, where religious sites were typically laid out in roughly circular or oval forms, demarcating sacred ground from the world beyond.

The church here is dedicated to St. Stephen, and within the south-east of the enclosure perimeter lies the site of St. Stephen's Well. Holy wells of this kind were almost universally attached to early ecclesiastical foundations in Ireland, often predating the church buildings themselves and continuing as sites of local devotion long after formal religious use of the surrounding land had changed. Archaeological testing carried out in the early 2000s, roughly 100 metres south of the enclosure, turned up fragments of north Devon ware and eroded late medieval pottery, though these appeared in secondary contexts rather than in association with any structures or features. A separate round of testing approximately 50 metres to the west, in the nearby townland of Reddysland, produced nothing related to the site at all. The pottery finds hint at medieval activity somewhere in the broader landscape, but the enclosure itself has not yielded its deeper history to the spade.

Rated 0 out of 5

Visitor Notes

Review type for post source and places source type not found
Added by
Picture of Pete F
Pete F
IrishHistory.com is passionate about helping people discover and connect with the rich stories of their local communities.
Please use the form below to submit any photos you may have of Ecclesiastical enclosure, Morrissysland, Co. Wexford. We're happy to take any suggested edits you may have too. Please be advised it will take us some time to get to these submissions. Thank you.
Name
Email
Message
Upload images/documents
Maximum file size: 100 MB
If you'd like to add an image or a PDF please do it here.

Advertisement