Cemetery: Croghan Hill and Old Croghan Churchyard

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Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives
Offaly (Kings) Index
Copyright

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File contributed by:  C.Hunt & Jacquie Liddiard

CROGHAN HILL AND OLD CROGHAN CHURCHYARD
    [From Lord Walter FitzGerald.]

'This churchyard, surrounded by a wall, is situated on a 
shoulder of Croghan Hill, near the summit.  It is reached by 
a steep, narrow boreen on the south side of the hill, till 
one passes two or three small holdings, when the remainder 
of the way is up across the open country.  Though the 
churchyard is of great antiquity, there are no inscribed 
tombstones of a date earlier than the eighteenth century; 
there are no pillar-stones nor old crosses in it, nor are 
there any traces of church buildings, thought the six-inch 
Ordinance Survey Map marks down the 'site of St. MacCaille's 
Church', in the north-west corner. 'St. MacCayl (as the name 
is pronounced) is not remembered in the locality, and there 
is no well dedicated to him.  At the foot of the hill, on 
the east side, there is a slab-covered well dedicated to St. 
Patrick, which is resorted to for the cure of the 
tooth-ache.  An Elizabethan Fiant in 1550 mentioneds "the 
Rectory of St. Patrick of Crohan in the Diocese of Kildare." 
'Owing to the steepness of the ascent, the carrying of a 
corpse on a bearer is no easy work; and the conveyance of 
slabs and headstones to the graves must be a work of great 
difficulty. The oldest inscription that I could discover 
only dates from 1721; it occurs on a flat slab in the middle 
of the burial-ground, the inscription on which reads :

HERE LIETH THE
BODY OF ROW=
LAND FLANNAGAN 
GENT WHO DEPAR
TED THIS LIFE THE
11TH DAY OF MAY
IN THE 23RD YEARE
OF HIS AGE 1721.
MEMENTO MORI.

'The lettering in this inscription is about three inches 
high, and incised.

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On a small headstone near the gate :-

+
HIS
Here lyeth the Body | of Iohn Brogan | who departed
this | life March ye 25th | 1728 aged 50 | years.

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On a small headstone near the Flannagan slab :-

This stone was Erred | by Daniel Scully & | his sons in 
memory | of his wife Ioan Scully | Als Garry who depd Xber 
28th 1728 Aged 50 | years.

  On a badly fractured slab on the north side :-

  +
  IHS
  Erected by Silvester Mangan
  in Memory of his Mother
  Honour Mangan who depd
  This life Sept 1770 Aged 50 yrs
  Also his Daughter Honoria
  Mangan who depd this life
  May 1804, Aged 27 years.
  Lord have Mercy on their souls.

  	*************

  Alongside the above, also a flat slab :

  +
  HIS
  Lord have Mercy on the Soul of |Patrick Mangan who depd 
this | Life Aug 10th 180- aged 68 years | Erected by his 
wife Bridget Mangan | and sons James & Wm Mangan. | Ody son 
to James died young.


Source:
Journal of the Association for the Preservation of the 
Memorials of the Dead in Ireland Vol. IX  (FHL# 1279285)