Burial ground, Leitrim, Co. Clare
Co. Clare |
Burial Grounds
In the townland of Leitrim in County Clare, there is a burial ground that exists, at least in the official record, as little more than a name and a map reference.
It has been noted, classified, and assigned a monument number, yet the details that would normally accompany such a designation remain unpublished. What lies there, how old it might be, whether it is a medieval parish cemetery or something older still, is not currently in the public domain.
Burial grounds of this kind are scattered across Clare in considerable numbers, ranging from early Christian enclosures associated with forgotten local saints to post-medieval graveyards that served rural communities long after any associated church had crumbled away. The townland name Leitrim derives from the Irish Liath Druim, meaning grey ridge, a name found in several counties and usually descriptive of the landscape rather than of any historical event. Without further detail it is impossible to say more about who was buried here, over what period, or under what circumstances the ground came to be used and eventually abandoned or overlooked.