Thursday 17 August 2017

Omey, the old new graveyard.

Old new, because it's after 1700. The old old ooooold ooooooooooold one goes back to 6th century at least.

8 comments:

  1. If folks are still putting out flowers, some of these must be new new, as well. (or relatively new) Your old new would be our old old.

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    1. Yes, it's still being used. But the new graveyard is used much more. In fact the acre and a halfishy they set aside for it is about half full And I think it's only been open 25 years or so.

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  2. And yet, your "new" graveyard is still older than anything we have here. Are "they" still doing the big crosses and stones on more recent ones? I think I've probably mentioned this before, but since I can remember it is the law now that all the stones have to be flat on the ground. No more big ones.

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    1. Ohh yes. Less of the Celtic Cross of my grandfathers one and more slabs like the black one. But you do see the odd celtic one here and there. Just not as many as before. But all have kerbs, about 6 inches or so above the ground. The two styles I've not seen are the Belgium/Italian tomb over the ground, and almost never flat like yours.

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  3. I've always enjoyed seeing how tombstone design has changed over the years and like Pumpkin Delight mentioned, we only have 300 years of history to peruse. I would love to look at a graveyard with 1500 years of history!

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    1. Yes there's another one from the graveyard with the MacKey stone, two actually. But the first is an early one, that I suspect was part of the pre-reformation church floor. The second is for a chap named Blackmore.
      The first, I'll have to get some large sheets of paper and do a rubbing, so I can read the thing. But it looks like a crusader slab.
      Blackmore is interesting because the only direct reference to a person I had was the writer of Lorna Doone. But generally, because we live in a Palatine, it is darn close to being certain that during the crusades, Arabs, and Africans that were Christians and fought would be given lands here, and other parts of Europe. A bit like how Afghan translators were re-homed in the USA.
      What's interesting to me is that we have a few ways of spelling More. That, More, then Moor, and the the Celtic Mór and Mor. All pronounced more or less the same. But that name Blackmore is likely a compound of fact a Black Moor. Basically Othello.

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  4. I love the ones with a bit of moss on them. Stones, unlike me, look best with a little age on them!

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    1. Lichens, I'd say, not moss. Very little by way of moss is going to survive in the wind that gets up on that island. There's absolutely nothing in a wide arc for thousands of miles. :-)

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