St Mura’s graveyard is a long-established, historic burial ground containing several different phases of datable, upstanding grave-marker types spanning at least the last three centuries, and the remains of a church structure dating from c. 1600. There is also visible evidence of the site’s use for ecclesiastical and burial practices for several hundred years prior to the existing date-inscribed memorials.
The ‘Record of Monuments and Places (RMP) was established as part of The National Monuments [Ammended] Act (1994). All sites recorded on the RMP receive statutory protection under the National Monuments Act 1994 and any work undertaken at these sites must be licenced by the National Monuments Service (“NMS”).
There are eight (8) RMP sites in Saint Mura’s Graveyard. These are The Graveyard, The Ruins of Fahan Old Church, The Wheeled Cross Slab, The Holed Stone, The 17th Century Graveslab of Major Richard Samsone, The 17th Century Graveslab of Jenat Browne. There is also a font, now in the Church at Lagg (near Malin village) which is considered to have originated in Fahan.
There is additional information about a number of these objects in the ‘Virtual Tour‘ of the graveyard on the this website.
This site has been used as a burial site for many hundreds of years. It contains 94 clearly* marked graves, many with multiple burials. In addition it contains many older graves, identified only with an unmarked stone or a ‘head and foot stone. There is also a number of unmarked grave slabs.
The most comprehensive record of burials in Saint Mura’s Graveyard is research undertaken during the 1980 by a group including the late Mrs Liz Erskin. The results of their research are included here.
*Unfortunately the condition of many of the headstones (and inscriptions)a has deteriorated since this research was done.