Kilmore Burial Ground (disused), An Más, Co. Mayo
Co. Mayo |
Burial Grounds
Along the folds of Connemara's outer edge, in the townland of An Más on the southern shore of Killary Harbour in County Mayo, there is a burial ground that has quietly ceased to function as one.
Kilmore, which takes its name from the Irish "Cill Mhór", meaning the great church or great cell, suggests a site with ecclesiastical origins, possibly an early Christian foundation of the kind that once dotted the western seaboard, small monastic or parish centres that served scattered rural communities for centuries before being gradually abandoned or superseded by newer churches elsewhere in the parish.
Disused burial grounds of this type are not uncommon in the west of Ireland. Many grew up around early medieval church sites and continued in use through the post-medieval period, eventually falling out of active service as populations shifted, parishes were reorganised, or newer, more accessible graveyards were established nearby. The "Cill" place-name element is itself a reliable indicator of early Christian activity, and sites carrying it frequently preserve traces of enclosure banks, bullaun stones, or the foundations of a small oratory, though what precisely survives at Kilmore in An Más is not currently documented in available public records.
An Más sits in a remote and geographically striking part of Mayo, wedged between the Sheeffry Hills and the long glacial fjord of Killary. For anyone with a general interest in early ecclesiastical landscapes of the west, the area rewards careful attention to the ground itself, to the slight rises, the remnant field boundaries, and the older place-names that often preserve more history than any standing structure.
