Grave Yard, Glashare, Co. Kilkenny

Co. Kilkenny |

Burial Grounds

Grave Yard, Glashare, Co. Kilkenny

A walled graveyard sits in low-lying pasture near the flood plain of a river in County Kilkenny, still receiving burials, yet with no visible trace of the church that once gave it its name.

The roughly square enclosure, measuring approximately 34 metres north to south and 32.5 metres east to west, contains headstones but nothing above ground to indicate a building ever stood within its walls. That absence is the quiet puzzle at the centre of the place.

The Ordnance Survey Letters of 1839 recorded the site's Irish name as Teampall Ghlaise Air, translated as Gleshare Church, suggesting a religious foundation old enough to have accumulated a place name of its own by the time surveyors came to write it down. The historian William Carrigan, writing in 1905, noted that the headstones present were all of modern date, implying that any medieval or early modern markers had long since disappeared or never existed in durable form. A visit in 1987 found the graveyard still in active use, though overgrown. The site lies about 100 metres south-east of Glashare Castle, so the two features likely share a historical relationship, the castle and the church serving the same small community in the same stretch of river valley, though the church itself has left no masonry standing to confirm it.

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, Glashare, Co. Kilkenny. 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