Medieval Graveyard Visit
18, 24 August, 11am - 2pm
- Old Connaught Graveyard, Opposite Festine Lente, Old
- Old Connaught Avenue, Bray, Co. Dublin
- Co. Dublin – Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown
This is a Graveyard with a Medieval Church. As a small group we are opening for 3 hours on Sunday 18th August and Saturday 25th August. It has been popular in recent years and people have looked for and found relations and friends whose headstones are in Old Connaught Graveyard.
There is some background information of this graveyard on our website: https://themedievalbrayproject.wicklowheritage.org/new-contributions/heritage-week-2022-old-connaught-church-and-graveyard
There is limited wheelchair access. If weather is rainy - boots are advisable. During the visit we hope to provide some back-ground material to add to the experience. Work is ongoing to endeavour to protect the headstones and grave markers. This site is not associated with an early medieval saint and the ruin of the church is typical of later medieval buildings.
The first definitive documentary record of the church is in a Regal Visitation of 1615 when it is recorded as being in good repair (Corlett 1999, 138-9).
The oldest date is upside down on the O'Neale headstone, the date is 1661, this part of the inscription is now visible as the stone has been reset. (See details in our leaflet available on site). We have just heard that Terry Wogan's family are buried here and we are attempting to find out more information.
If it is raining we suggest you wear strong footwear as the ground can be slippy.