Sailors Graveyard?

LordSutch

I have recently become a aware of a graveyard adjacent to the Tara Towers Hotel on the Merrion road in Dublin, and I am just wondering about who is buried there? I did ask in the Tara Towers, and the manager thought it was a graveyard for Spanish sailors who drowned during the Armada, however, one of his colleagues thought the garvayard was full of British sailors who perished during a storm sometime pre 1900. I also asked in the petrol station and the fella in there said that a ferry from the North Wall went aground offshore, and those who perished are buried there, so I don't know what to believe!

Can somebody say for sure what the truth is regarding this graveyard and its deceased inhabitants.

Thanks in advance.

Peregrinus

Bellevue cemetery - it's very old, goes back to at least the fourteenth century, and probably started out as a churchyard, though nothing remains of the church.

There is a bunch of soldiers buried there who died when their transport sank outside Dun Laoghaire harbour during a bad storm - that was some time during the Napoleonic wars, i.e. before 1815.

The cemetery was declared full, and closed, some time later in the 19th century. It's managed as a public park now.

Fratton Fred

There were two ships lost, the Rochdale and the Prince of Wales. Those lost on the Prince of Wales were buried at Bellevue Cemetary and from the Rochdale at Carrickbrennan in Monkstown. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinking_of_the_Rochdale_and_the_Prince_of_Wales

LordSutch

Thanks guys, now I know.

Amazing that the adjoining hotel isn't aware of its history, specially with so many tourists staying there.

pedroeibar1

Carrickbrennan graveyard also contains the bodies of many other sailors, notably those from the 1860's wreck of the Neptune in a winter storm in Dun Laoghaire / Kingstown. The captain of HMS AjaxAjax, Boyd, drowned with his boat's crew when attempting a rescue of Neptune, was to be buried there also, but his body was not recovered until weeks later and he was buried in Dublin (St. Patricks?) The members of his yacht club (Royal St. George YC) erected the memorial (Boyd obelisk) on the East Pier. His labrador is the source of the ghost story 'The Black dog of the Liberties.'

mickmackey1

pedroeibar1 wrote: »

The captain of HMS Ajax, Boyd, drowned with his boat's crew when attempting a rescue of Neptune, was to be buried there also, but his body was not recovered until weeks later and he was buried in Dublin (St. Patricks?)

pedroeibar1

I found this which gives good info on the storm and this which covers Boyd’s service life.

slowburner

Is this graveyard accessible and are the headstones visible?

Peregrinus

slowburner wrote: »

Is this graveyard accessible and are the headstones visible?

There are many headstones visible.

As to accessibility, according to Wikipedia it's managed as a park by Dublin Corporation, but the Corpo's own website doesn't list it as a park. There's been a problem of vandalism there, and my guess is that to minimse that problem and/or to save money the Corpo may have mothballed it as an active park. You could contact the Corpo parks department and ask about access, if you are interested in research.

slowburner

The good news is that the graveyard is accessible - at least it was today. It might be unlocked between 10-4pm, in common with many other graveyards.

Graveyards of this sort of vintage are undervalued places. If you were to look at a document from the early C18th, you would be asked to don cotton gloves and hold your breath. But in these graveyards, we have open air access to C18th and often much earlier 'documents'. A priceless and frequently neglected part of our heritage.

The commemorative stone below may not be too easy to read, so here is the inscription:

Sacred
To the memory of the Soldiers
belonging to his Majesty's 18th Regement (sic)
Of Foot and a few belonging to other
Corps who Actuated by a desire of more
Extensive Service Nobly Volunteered
from the South Mayo and different
Regements of Irish Militia into the line
and who were unfortunately shipwrecked
on this Coast in the Prince of Wales Packet
and Perished on the Night of the 19th of
November 1807 this Tribute to their
Memory has been placed on their Tomb
by order of GENERAL the
EARL of HARRINGTON
Commander of the Forces in Ireland