Secrets of Templecarne Graveyard

Secrets of Templecarne Graveyard

Parish of Templecarn--Templecarne Graveyard--Tradition--Sacred space

A description of the graveyard and its relationship with the lake

Shane Leslie, 1885-1971

From the MS. Preserved at Castle Leslie, Co. Monaghan, 1666, Leslie, Shane, Saint Patrick's Purgatory: A Record from History and Literature, p. 84

Burns Oats and Washbourne Ltd, London

1932

Citation for the purposes of criticism

Collection of sources

English

Monograph

DD_0090

54.572777, -7.840470

Between Pettigo and Lough Derg on the old road lies the ruined graveyard of Templecarne, which Archbishop Healy thinks was the place of St Patrick's passage. Knox describes an interesting custom in connection with it: 'In the Sessiagh stands the Parish Church which is ruinous and there is the burial place for all, most commonly, but of old tis said some of the greatest note were buried in the Church Island in Logh Derg, I mean of those who were the inhabitants of Termond. Near this Church of Carne is an old ruinous building which of old was used as a place so sacred that when the inhabitants used to go from their winter dwellings to the utmost mountains for grass to their cattle which they did most commonly in Summer, they left such good as they could not leave safely at home in this place until they returned again or had occasion to use them and it was accounted a kind of sacrilige to meddle with anything that was left there to be kept, so much veneration had those barbarous people for whatever their Clergy gave them to believe was holy, which is indeed commendable in my opinion and much to be admired in those whose natural inclinations ever did and does to this day incline them to rapine and spoil.' It is only fair to add that however barbarous, the inhabitants aforesaid were not guilty of the spoil of Lough Derg and the rapine of the Holy Island which must be placed to the credit of so-called civilised folk!"

Monograph