Entrance
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Location in Ireland | |
Details | |
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Established | 6th century |
Closed | 1874 (last burial 1947) |
Location | Carrickbrennan Road, Monkstown, Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown |
Country | Republic of Ireland |
Type | Church of Ireland |
Size | 0.3 ha (0.738 acre) |
Find a Grave | Carrickbrennan Churchyard |
Carrickbrennan Churchyard (Irish: Reilig Charraig Bhraonáin) located on Carrickbrennan Road, Monkstown, County Dublin, Ireland is a graveyard that can still be seen today, but is no longer in use. It is notable as the burial place of many people who perished in local maritime disasters. The graveyard stands beside the grounds of Monkstown Park, former estate of Lord Ranelagh and latterly the historian Charles Haliday, now used as rugby pitches by CBC Monkstown Park.
There used to be a medieval monastery at this site dedicated to St. Mochonna, a 6th-century Bishop from Holmpatrick, Skerries. The monks were Cistercian and the monastery was part of the chapter of St. Mary's Abbey, Dublin. The building fell to ruin and was replaced in 1668 by a church built by Edward Corker. Today this church lies in ruins, but in the 19th century the building was modified somewhat for a watchman's house to deter body snatchers.
The nearby Monkstown Castle was also built by the Cistercian monks in the 13th–14th century. The castle was later granted to Sir John Travers for his services to the Crown by King Henry VIII around the middle of the 16th century. Travers died 16 May 1562 and is buried here. The castle was later inherited by Mary Travers' nephew, Henry Cheevers, upon her death in 1601. Henry Cheevers died in 1640 and is also buried in the churchyard.
The churchyard was closed in 1874 due to fears of a cholera outbreak, but there were further burials as late as the 1950s.
In the 1980s the Carrickbrennan Graveyard Restoration Project restored the site by resetting headstones, fixing boundary walls, removing dangerous trees and restoring old ironwork. New trees were added including a Bhutan pine and a dawn redwood planted by Denis O'Connor Don, the president of the Dún Laoghaire Historical Society at the time. The site is now in the care of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council.