Grave Yard, Termon, Co. Clare

Co. Clare |

Burial Grounds

Grave Yard, Termon, Co. Clare

A triangular graveyard is already an unusual thing.

Most burial enclosures follow the logic of the rectangle, or at least a rough oval, but the one at Termon in County Clare takes a different shape entirely, its boundaries formed by two straight, carefully coursed stone walls meeting at angles to the north-west and north-east, and a third curving, uncoursed wall sweeping around the south. The site sits in low-lying ground, sheltered to the north and north-east, with a damp marshy area pressing close. A single stile, set midway along the north-west wall, is the only way in.

Within the enclosure stands Templecronan, an early church whose name connects it to St Cronan of Roscrea, a sixth and seventh-century Irish monastic figure associated with this part of Clare. The church is not the only feature worth attention. Two slab shrines survive here, a type of early medieval monument in which a large flat stone, or pair of stones, was placed over or beside a grave, often that of a saint or person of particular local importance. One shrine sits to the south-east of the church, inside the enclosure; the second lies just beyond the graveyard wall to the north-east, technically outside the boundary but clearly part of the same sacred geography. Close to the interior shrine stand two plain upright grave markers, one roughly half a metre tall, the other somewhat taller, and a scatter of eight or nine further low plain markers occupies the ground to the south and south-west of the church.

The plainness of these markers, unmarked by inscription or ornament, makes dating them difficult, but their simplicity is in keeping with early medieval burial practice, where the act of placement mattered more than any carved declaration of identity. The graveyard slopes gently westward, and that slight tilt, combined with the marshy ground nearby, gives the whole site a quietly unsettled quality, as if the land itself is still making up its mind about the arrangement.

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