Lost Graveyards

The first of my visits to ‘lost graveyards’ of south Wicklow was to Mullinacuff and it raised a number of questions that continue to puzzle me.  

First, why were so many old graveyards in Wicklow ‘lost’?   Many of them are off the beaten track. At Mullinaduff, despite a promising road sign, I had to ask locals for help. I was finally directed up a long narrow grassy side lane. The man who pointed the way told me I had to walk up for 600 metres and to watch out for hidden holes in the graveyard as it was a dangerous place.

The graveyard might be difficult to find but when you get close it is hard to miss. The glistening white walls of a church ruin immediately catch the eye. I asked a man living at the end of the lane about it.  Had the stones been scrubbed in an effort to brighten the graveyard?

No, he said. It was a natural local stone but was not popular because it was white. People prefer darker colours. He knew because he sold stone himself.  It was my first hint that south Wicklow people know their stones, later I was to find ways that relationship was expressed.    

Wicklow is known for its mountains and the local granite was highly prized for construction because of its resistance to splitting and distinctive appearance.  It was used not only locally in place like Templerainey Chapel in Arklow but in the Customs House in Dublin and the House of Lords in London. There is still a family in Ballyknockan, ‘the Granite Village’, advertising itself as carrying on the stone cutting tradition for eight generations.

I was to find out more about the stone-cutters later but on this visit to Mullinacuff my interest was in the old graveyards and why they are called ‘forgotten’. 

Despite its present deserted condition Mullinacuff graveyard has been described as ‘a hallowed place where Christians from across all divides repose, side by side. Here lie the bodies of Protestants, French Huguenots, Roman Catholics and descendants of the first Anglo-Norman invaders. In one grave lie the remains of three men from the Ireland family – their combined age was in excess of 300!’

However I was to find that such an international and inter-denominational graveyard is quite rare in this part of county Wicklow. Indeed the others, rather than Mullinacuff,  may explain why so many graveyards in the county are ‘forgotten’. 

Churches were not always in the middle of a cemetery. Before the 8th century there was just a small monastic community at Mullinacuff and there is no memory of its founder. Typically its single cell was small and rectangular, with a doorway in the west wall.

At an early stage of Christianity in Ireland burials in even small monastic centres like Mullinacuff were reserved for high-ranking members of society:  bishops, abbots, clerics and local patrons. However, from the 8^th century the Church began to regulate burial practices and urged the faithful to abandon burial among their ancestors in favour of church graveyards. So Mullinaduff took on a new identity.

The graveyard there has obviously been in use for centuries. Why did it fall into disuse and, like other graveyards in the area, become ‘forgotten’? That was not the only question which south Wicklow posed for me but looking for answers to unexpected questions is a shortcut to learning our history and culture.