That alone marks it out. Not every burial ground in Ireland carries that designation, and the ones that do tend to have origins that stretch back well before the era of formally managed parish cemeteries, sometimes to early medieval religious foundations, sometimes to pre-Christian funerary traditions whose details have since blurred into the landscape.

Beyond its existence and its location, the documentary record for this particular site is sparse. No dates, no associated church ruins, no named founders or patron saints appear in what has been catalogued so far. That absence is itself worth noting. Many of the older graveyards in Connacht were attached to small early Christian settlements, cells founded by obscure saints whose cults never spread far beyond a single parish. Others occupy ground that communities returned to for burial generation after generation, long after any associated structure had vanished. Without further detail, it is not possible to say which story applies here, though the name Newtowneyre hints at post-medieval settlement activity in the area, the "newtown" element suggesting a planned or reorganised settlement at some point, possibly under an anglicised landlord whose name the second element preserves.