Burial Ground, Kilquane, Co. Kerry

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Burial Grounds

Burial Ground, Kilquane, Co. Kerry

Most old graveyards in Ireland are entered through a gate, or perhaps a gap in a wall.

The burial ground associated with Kilmurry Church near Cordal in County Kerry offers something slightly more considered: two stiles built directly into the boundary wall, sitting either side of the main wrought-iron gates, each representing a different approach to the same problem of getting a person over a stone wall without dismantling any of it. One is a stepped stile, made from flagstones that project outward from both faces of the wall to form ascending and descending steps. The other is a V-shaped stile, a narrowing wedge cut into the wall that a person edges through sideways. Both survive in good condition, though the stepped stile has largely fallen out of use now that the gated entrance offers a more straightforward way in.

A survey carried out in 2011 by Headland Archaeology Ltd. on behalf of Kerry County Council recorded the site in some detail. The graveyard occupies a relatively level area, sheltered from prevailing winds by the higher ground surrounding it. Its boundary walls are of roughly dressed mortared rubble stone with rubble coping, in reasonably sound condition for the most part, though the south-western corner was found to be collapsing outward toward the road. The main entrance piers are of tooled limestone with flagstone capping and had been recently repointed at the time of the survey. The church ruin, known as Kilmurry Church, survives in poor condition and was heavily overgrown with ivy when inspected. The stiles that flank the entrance are described as historic, suggesting they predate the limestone piers and iron gates that now form the primary way in.

The V-shaped stile remains the more frequently used of the two, and it is easy to see why: it requires no climbing, only a careful sideways squeeze through the narrowing gap. It is a small, practical piece of vernacular engineering, the kind of detail that tends to go unnoticed precisely because it does exactly what it was made to do.

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