Graveyard, Lusk, Co. Dublin
Co. Dublin |
Burial Grounds
The graveyard at Lusk sits on a slight rise in this north County Dublin village, and the effect of that elevation is quietly disorienting.
The enclosure is sub-rectangular, bounded by a low stone wall that has collapsed and been rebuilt more than once over the centuries, and the ground within slopes noticeably downward from the church and round tower at the top toward the perimeter wall at the edges. Outside that wall, at a markedly lower level, ordinary suburban gardens and houses press right up against it, so that the sacred and the domestic exist in an odd, layered proximity.
The two principal structures within the enclosure, a medieval church and a round tower, are recorded separately in the Sites and Monuments Record for County Dublin. Round towers are slender, tapering stone structures built mostly between the ninth and twelfth centuries, thought to have served as bell towers and places of refuge for monastic communities during periods of raid and unrest. The graveyard also contains the Echlin tomb, commemorating Sir Robert Echlin of Kenure House in nearby Rush, who lived from 1699 to 1757. Kenure House was a significant landed estate in the area, and the presence of such a prominent memorial here points to the graveyard's continued use by local gentry well into the eighteenth century, long after the medieval period that gave the site its principal character.
The site is accessible within the village of Lusk, and the round tower is visible from some distance, making orientation straightforward. The sloping ground inside the enclosure is worth paying attention to once you enter; it gives you a clearer sense of how the site was laid out around the older ecclesiastical structures rather than being levelled for convenience. The low perimeter wall, patched and re-patched across different eras, repays a closer look in itself. The Echlin tomb is located within the graveyard, and given the relatively compact size of the enclosure it is not difficult to locate.