St James's Graveyard

14/02/2019

The team have recovered some fragments from the Sir Toby Butler Memorial on site. We sourced an image from the Irish Architectural Archive for the original positioning and we are excited that we can now put these fragments back in place.

The Sir Toby Butler Memorial is one of the most prominent memorials in the graveyard. Sir Toby Butler framed the Articles of limerick and became Solicitor General for Ireland.

You can read more about the exciting life of Sir Toby Butler on our website here:

https://www.stjamesgraveyard.ie/burials-graves

12/02/2019

Conservation Update:

Read our latest blog post to find out what our team have been working on at St James's Graveyard since the New Year kicked in.

It has been a very mild but wet winter, making progress slow on site these past few weeks at St James's Graveyard. However, with over 200 memorials that require

06/02/2019

It has been a very mild but wet winter, making progress slow on site these past few weeks at St James's Graveyard. However, with over 200 memorials that require conservation work, the team are over 3/4 of the way through. Below are some updates from the site this January.

The repairs to the boundary walls are near complete - the first section of flaunching to the east wall is finished and the second section is underway. The team are also ensuring that the eroded bricks and stone under the capping of the wall are reinforced with salvaged brick and stone. The lime is protected by a covering of hessin.

One of the most prominent memorials in St James Graveyard is the Toby Butler Memorial. The team have discovered that since the walls were reset on this memorial over 10 years ago, the stonework has since been spreading and sinking, and now the team are using this opportunity to get everything plumb, in line, and more stable. Repair work to this memorial includes the resetting of the cappings on both sides of the memorial. This will ensure the entire memorial is plumb and looking tidy allowing the railings to look back in line with one another. The ironwork and railings will be installed following the resetting of the stonework.

Work to the Obelisk; 'Memorial 384' still remains a bit of a mystery to the team. However there are forms suggested by the brick, which the team have identified that will allow them to build up the memorial, increasing stability, in a way that is sensible. There is no new stone being used, only mortar and limecrete to build up the form.

Another table top monument shows that a lot of brick had fallen away and some erosion caused by an adjacent tree. In order to stabilise this monument they will use salvaged brick, yellow mauve brick, to bring it back up to level.

There are over 200 memorials, at varying levels of complexity, undergoing conservation work and repair at St James's Graveyard. There are a number of works to the memorials on site still on going, but the team hope to be finished this phase of conservation work by the end of March. The next phase of works will include landscape design and interpretation.

21/12/2018

As 2018 comes to a close we would like to post a short update on our progress so far.

Conservation works to stone memorials, walls and headstones are still ongoing and will continue into January 2019. Rainfall and poor weather conditions made some of the works come to a halt in November and so a number of memorials are still in need of work.

However many of the stone memorials which were due conservation work are completed or at near stage of completion now. Many of these required stitching back together with stone glue, and a limewash is being used to seal some of the loose debris, fill in any cracks in the stone and to preserve the stone from more weathering over time. Other memorials required a greater clearing and some stabilisation either with new stone or re-setting existing loose stones. Many of the memorial stone crosses which had fallen to the ground have now been re-set and you can see them free standing throughout the graveyard - some which revealed detailed design work.

You can also see how the winter weather is unveiling the terrain of the graveyard and the cleaning up process is giving shape to the landscape and enhancing its character.

You can see from the photos the progress being made on some of these memorials and how the graveyard is shaping up.

15/12/2018

Good views of the winter season taking hold in the graveyard - progress photos on site early December.

15/12/2018

Some nice details of the stonework still preserved on this standing cross memorial.

14/12/2018

Some funky fungi growing in the graveyard this winter!

Graveyards can also provide an important refuge for wildlife, particularly in built up urban areas like The Liberties in Dublin City. The graveyard provides an island of mature woodland habitat in an urban setting, and is important for local birds, mammals, insects and plants.

14/12/2018

Conservation works on site for St James's Graveyard began earlier this year; learn more about this project on our website buff.ly/2ScbDEe

13/12/2018

Scaffolding on the East Wall and detail of boundary wall - The team are rebuilding sections of wall that are missing and repairing parts that have decayed over time.

13/12/2018

PROGRESS: Some of the stone memorials which have been stitched back together with stone glue and ready to be sealed with limewash.

12/12/2018

Detail of Headstone: Memento Mori

12/12/2018

Headstone detail: Here Lyeth The Body