Burial ground, Kyle, Co. Wexford
Co. Wexford |
Burial Grounds
On the lower foothills of the Blackstairs Mountains in County Wexford, a wedge-shaped field holds the quiet remnants of a burial ground that has never quite been forgotten, even if it has never been formally remembered.
Known locally as the church field, it sits on a gentle east-facing slope with a stream running roughly seventy metres to the east, and its boundaries are defined by a stone-clad earthen bank and hedge. Inside, the ground is stony, and two small upright stones, each only around ten centimetres high and standing some thirty to forty centimetres apart, are thought to be grave-markers. They are modest almost to the point of invisibility, and yet local tradition insists people were buried here.
The site's precise origins are unclear, but the presence of a bullaun stone approximately ninety metres to the south-east adds another layer of interest. A bullaun is a boulder or rock with one or more artificial cup-shaped depressions hollowed into its surface; they are found across Ireland and are frequently associated with early Christian sites, holy wells, and places of long-continued local devotion, though their exact purposes remain debated. The clustering of a burial ground, a church field name, and a bullaun stone within a small area on the Blackstairs foothills suggests this corner of Kyle parish once carried a significance that has since quietly receded into the landscape.