At Castlefarm in County Kerry, that relationship was reversed: the ground here is so heavily bedded in limestone rock that anyone wishing to bury their dead had to import soil from elsewhere, carrying it in simply to make burial possible. It is a quietly striking detail, suggesting a community determined to maintain a sacred place in spite of the terrain rather than because of it.

The graveyard itself sits on a rise, enclosed by a wall of random rubble limestone, the kind of construction where stones are laid without any regular coursework, fitted together as found. It measures roughly 61 metres east to west and 46 metres north to south, making it a substantial enclosure. Within it, positioned in the north-eastern quadrant, stands Molahiffe church, whose presence suggests the site has served religious and funerary purposes over a considerable span of time. The pairing of church and graveyard within a single walled enclosure was common throughout medieval Ireland, and the positioning of the church off-centre within the larger rectangular boundary hints at a site that may have accumulated its current form gradually rather than all at once.