Cemetery: Croghan Hill and Old Croghan Churchyard *********************************************** Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives Offaly (Kings) Index Copyright ************************************************ 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. ************* 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. ************* 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)