2024:428 - Clogheenavodig, Bandon, Cork

Monitoring of tree planting at Clogheenavodig burial ground was carried out on 14 December, 2024. Bandon Environmental Action Group (BEAG) was granted permission to make pollinator-friendly planting along the northern boundary bank of St Mary’s Cemetery. This cemetery was begun in 1847 for the local workhouse due to overcrowding in the parish graveyards, especially during the years of the Great Famine. It consists of a narrow, rectangular plot of land, enclosed by the construction of a new earth and stone field boundary to the south and a new entrance to the west. Regularly laid out, plain marker stones across the site would probably have marked multiple burials rather than individual ones.

BEAG planted c.80 saplings including whitethorn, guelder and dog rose. All planting was carried out by hand, using spades, along the top of the northern boundary bank only. This boundary consisted mostly of soil with some stone facing and was grass covered. No archaeology was found and the burial ground was not disturbed.