Grave Yard, Cinn Aird Thoir, Co. Kerry

Co. Kerry |

Burial Grounds

Grave Yard, Cinn Aird Thoir, Co. Kerry

A graveyard that has quietly outlasted the church it once served is already an unusual thing, but the burial ground at Kinard East on the Dingle Peninsula carries a deeper and stranger layering.

The church, known as Teampall Chinn Aird, has left no visible trace above ground, yet the site almost certainly predates even its earliest documentary mention in the Papal Taxation List of 1302 to 1307 for the Diocese of Ardfert. The evidence for that earlier foundation is lithic rather than written: two ogham stones, the ancient Irish script carved in notches along stone edges, survive within the graveyard, along with a bullaun stone, a boulder with one or more cup-shaped hollows used historically for ritual or practical purposes. The bullaun has since wandered; it now sits just outside the graveyard boundary to the north. The wider district was once known as Tearmann Fhíonáin, territory associated with the patron saint of the parish, and a pattern, the traditional Irish gathering on a saint's feast day, was formerly held here.

The graveyard itself, sub-rectangular in plan and set on a relatively level shelf on the northern flank of a low mountain about 5.5 kilometres southeast of Dingle, holds considerably more than its modest appearance suggests. A survey carried out in 2011 by Ann Frykler and Robert Hanbidge of Headland Archaeology Ltd. catalogued the full range of what remains. Among the 259 unnamed gravemarkers recorded, the overwhelming majority are simply a locally sourced stone pushed upright into the earth, a vernacular tradition that spans centuries without flourish. Seventeen lintel graves were also identified, a type in which stone lintels cover an underground burial chamber and are then earthed over, often invisible unless the ground has shifted or the covering soil has thinned. One grave, No. 404, is marked by a beehive quern stone, a domed hand-mill repurposed in death. Another, No. 80, is constructed from red brick, an anomaly among the otherwise rubblestone and drystone tombs. Carved architectural fragments, including a perforated cylindrical old red sandstone piece of uncertain original function, possibly part of a column or pedestal, were found scattered through the site. The oldest dateable tomb, commemorating the McKenna family, carries the year 1888.

The graveyard is still in use and sits opposite a minor road junction, with a sunken pathway running around its interior boundaries and a disused historic stile, overgrown and no longer passable, marking what was once a secondary approach from the south. Views from the site reach north across to the peaks of Mount Brandon, Slievanea, and Cnoc Mhaoilionain, the mountain ridges that define the spine of the Dingle Peninsula.

Rated 0 out of 5

Visitor Notes

Review type for post source and places source type not found
Added by
Picture of Pete F
Pete F
IrishHistory.com is passionate about helping people discover and connect with the rich stories of their local communities.
Please use the form below to submit any photos you may have of Grave Yard, Cinn Aird Thoir, Co. Kerry. We're happy to take any suggested edits you may have too. Please be advised it will take us some time to get to these submissions. Thank you.
Name
Email
Message
Upload images/documents
Maximum file size: 100 MB
If you'd like to add an image or a PDF please do it here.

Advertisement