Grave Yard, Tincurra, Co. Wexford

Co. Wexford |

Burial Grounds

Grave Yard, Tincurra, Co. Wexford

A circular graveyard in County Wexford, roughly 38 metres across, enclosed by an earthen bank with traces of a fosse and outer bank to the north-east, is an arrangement that speaks to an older logic than simple burial convenience.

The circularity here is significant: circular enclosures of this kind are widely associated with early medieval ecclesiastical sites in Ireland, where the curving boundary, sometimes called a cashel when built in stone or a rath-like enclosure when earthen, marked out sacred ground and distinguished it from the surrounding landscape.

The site at Tincurra sits in a quiet valley beside a north-east to south-west running stream, roughly 30 metres to the south. Within the enclosure stands the parish church, which belonged to a detached portion of Taghmon parish, an administrative curiosity in itself, as detached portions represent fragments of older territorial arrangements that survived into later ecclesiastical geography, separated from the main body of their parish by the boundaries of neighbouring ones. Just 20 metres to the east lies Trinity Well, a holy well, that is, a natural spring or water source invested with religious significance, often associated with a patron saint or a feast day and frequently found in close proximity to early church sites across Ireland. The clustering here of a circularly enclosed church, a possible fosse and outer bank suggesting layered construction or defence, and a holy well nearby, points to a place of some antiquity and local religious importance.

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