Online Photographic Exhibition of the Beannacháin Gravestones, Ardmore, Co. Waterford

Saint Declan's grave, Ardmore, Co. Waterford, is potentially the oldest known extant Christian grave in Ireland.

A site of pilgrimage since the Early Medieval period it is enclosed in a small stone building originally built as a 9th century shrine chapel (An Beannacháin). The attractions of burial close to the saint's grave has resulted in a subgroup of post-medieval gravestones adjacent to the Beannacháin currently being studied by local archaeologists.

Using side lit flash photography we are examining the inscriptions, the iconography and ornamentation on the gravestones. This group of stones reveal the higher status Catholic families of the parish throughout the 18th and 19th centuries.