National Heritage Week, one of the busiest times of the year for any Irish heritage practitioner, has come and gone for 2025, and we spent the week delivering events and activities across the country. During that time, we experienced one of the most meaningful Heritage Week events of our career in Kilskeagh, Co. Galway. We’ve worked with the Kilskeagh Heritage Committee since 2023 in their project to uncover the ‘Old Kilskeagh’ church and graveyard site, the majority of which has long been inaccessible due to an extremely heavy woodland overgrowth which has been in place for potentially up to a century. Since 2023, we’ve worked to carefully uncover and identify the church and graveyard, also working with ecologist John Lusby to ensure a balance between the archaeology and ecology of the site.
On Friday 22nd August, well over a hundred locals came for a blessing of the graveyard (which was in use by the community up until the twentieth century) and a tour of the important history, archaeology, and ecology preserved there. The parish priest delivered prayers outside of the walls of the former Kilskeagh parish church, dating to the 15th/16th century. The oldest visitors had not been able to access the graveyard for decades, and most of the youngest visitors had been unaware that it had ever existed in the first place. Many members of the community have family members buried in the area – some as close as children and siblings – and it was an emotional and important visit to step foot on the site again and feel that their family had been respected and remembered with the access to and clearance of the site. All of the graves so far (bar one) do not have any grave markers with names or dates, and are simply laid out and marked by limestone slabs and boulders.
The overall site has potentially been in use since the sixth century and has seen multiple layers of use over hundreds of years. However, Friday’s event was a real example that history is not always ancient, and that the past can be much more present in our lives than we often think. Huge credit is due to Kilskeagh Heritage Committee Chairman John Tarpey, who is the powerhouse behind the project, as well as all the community volunteers who donated their time for hours of difficult clearing work over the years. Looking forward to the future of working with this site, which still continues to surprise us as we uncover more!
The Old Kilskeagh Church and Graveyard Project was supported in 2025 by The Heritage Council Community Heritage Grant Scheme.
Scéal Heritage Consultancy 