Grave Yard, Corraun, Co. Mayo
Co. Mayo |
Burial Grounds
On the Corraun Peninsula in County Mayo, a small graveyard sits within a landscape shaped as much by Atlantic weather as by human history.
Corraun is a knuckle of land pushing into Clew Bay, caught between the waters of Achill Sound to the north and Killary Harbour's outer reaches to the south, and the burial grounds found in such places tend to be old, quiet, and easy to overlook.
Graveyards of this kind in rural Connacht frequently occupy ground that was considered sacred long before any formal parish structure existed. Many are associated with early Christian foundations, sometimes no more than a few dressed stones or the ghost of a cashel wall, a circular stone enclosure that would once have marked out a monastic or ecclesiastical precinct. Others grew up around the ruins of a medieval parish church, continuing in use by local families well into the nineteenth century even after the building itself had collapsed. Without further detail it is not possible to say which of these histories belongs to this particular site, but the Corraun Peninsula has a depth of settlement reaching back through the medieval period and beyond, and a graveyard recorded as a monument here is unlikely to be a recent or incidental thing.
The peninsula itself remains relatively unfrequented compared to Achill Island proper, separated from it by the sound and connected to the mainland by road through Mulranny. For anyone already travelling that stretch of the Wild Atlantic Way, Corraun rewards a slower pace and a willingness to leave the main road.