Graveyard, Leitrim, Co. Wicklow
Co. Wicklow |
Burial Grounds
On a low hill in the townland of Leitrim in County Wicklow, a graveyard sits at the summit with open views stretching out to the north.
What makes the site quietly unusual is not the graveyard itself but the cluster of elements gathered around it, each one a remnant of a much older religious landscape. Together they suggest a place of continuous, layered significance that long predates the railing now enclosing the burial ground.
The graveyard is subrectangular in shape, measuring roughly 54 metres north to south and 45 metres east to west. Immediately to the west, a circular ecclesiastical enclosure extends beyond the graveyard boundary. Circular enclosures of this kind are generally associated with early medieval ecclesiastical settlements in Ireland, the rounded form thought to reflect pre-Norman land organisation around a church or monastic cell. A holy well once stood at the northern edge of this enclosure, though it is recorded as formerly existing rather than surviving in any visible form today. Holy wells in Ireland were typically sites of local veneration, often associated with a patron saint and visited on particular feast days. Fifteen metres to the southeast of the graveyard sits an earthfast granite bullaun, a large stone with one or more cup-shaped depressions worn or pecked into its surface. Bullaun stones are found across Ireland and are often linked to early Christian sites, though their precise original function remains debated. A font, presumably recovered from an earlier structure on or near the site, has been placed on a modern plinth just inside the entrance gate.
The site is protected under a preservation order dating to 1940, which reflects how early its significance was formally recognised. Visitors approaching the hilltop will find the components of the site spread across a modest area, with the bullaun stone requiring a short walk southeast from the graveyard entrance to locate.