Location
The Piltown/Kinsalebeg Community Alert Group called a graveyard meitheal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meitheal) last weekend and a group of gloved volunteers armed with clippers and hedge cutters assembled to improve the accessibility of the historic graveyard. Following the guidance of the Care and Conservation booklet (http://www.heritagecouncil.ie/fileadmin/user_upload/Publications/Archaeology/Guidance_Historic_Graveyards.pdf) Terry O'Callaghan, Chairman, consulted with the county heritage officer and also got in touch with us in Historic Graves.
In little over three hours an area measuring 400 sq m was shorn of brambles and grass clumps while a railed memorial at the eastern end of the ruined church was cleared of some invasive elder plants.
No chemicals were used and it is planned to work with team member Mike McKenna of the Blackwater Garden Centre (http://www.blackwaterplantsplus.ie/) to develop a methodology for enhancing the biodiversity of the habitats in Prospecthall. We will also follow the guidance of Dr Siobhán Geraghty in her recent article Graveyards: Wildlife and Biodiversity Issues in The Place of Their Ressurection (http://historicgraves.ie/blog/events/place-their-resurrection) recently published (lookup ISBN No. 978-1-908655-01-1). Another work team will gather for a few hours next Saturday morning 14/1/12.
