Overview
Conwal has two layers of memory, and the older one is the more unusual. Around 1968 a tidy-up gathered the site’s early Christian cross slabs and cruciform stones onto a flat-topped cairn, where they now sit as an open-air lapidarium you can actually read, rather than scattered and weathering into the grass. The newer layer is modern and military: a memorial to Irish peacekeepers killed serving abroad. The cemetery (Irish: Reilig Conbháil) lies on the southeastern slopes of Glendoon Hill, west of Letterkenny in County Donegal on the Churchill road, with the Forglug Burn running below before it joins the River Swilly. It is still an active burial ground, so the old stones share the ground with modern plots.
If you only have time for one thing, make it the cairn and its carved stones.
History
Conwal began as an early ecclesiastical settlement – a monastery thought to date from the 7th century, a reading supported by archaeological testing in 1997 and by the ruined medieval church still on the site. The archaeological excavation report records the church and the cairn of grave slabs and carved cross slabs. Documents already called that church a ruin in 1622; by 1835 only a fragment of the south wall, about 15 ft high, and parts of the north wall survived. The structure measured roughly 17.5 m by 6.5 m internally. The ivy-clad south wall now stands to about 4.5 m, with the lower courses of the north wall still visible.
In 1636 the ground was formally laid out as the burial place for the Church of Ireland parish of Conwal and Leck, and the oldest legible headstone dates to 1650. The mid-century tidy-up, around 1968, reshaped a grassy rectangular mound beside the south wall into the stone cairn that displays the carved stones today.
What to see
The cairn and carved stones
The flat-topped cairn is the heart of the place: cross slabs, upright cruciform stones and a run of recumbent graveslabs, gathered where you can compare them side by side. The standout is a recumbent slab 2.36 m long, traditionally linked to Godfrey O’Donnell, the chieftain who died in 1258. It carries a wheeled cross flanked by interlace, with bosses and spiral motifs. Find too a slab showing a human figure in an orans (praying) pose, a swastika-type design with square spirals, and crosses that range from simple incised lines to elaborate wheeled forms with hollow angles.
The ruined church
Look at the ivy-covered south wall and the low north-wall courses. The nave outline (17.5 m × 6.5 m) is still clear, and the broken altar base at the east end marks where the medieval liturgy happened. The headstones around it track three centuries of changing fashion: 17th-century recumbent slabs carry Puritan-influenced skull-and-crossbones motifs, while the 18th and 19th centuries brought upstanding headstones, obelisks and family plots set inside decorative iron railings.
The UN peacekeeper memorial
A memorial erected by the Irish United Nations Veterans Association (IUNVA) Post 19 honours Irish Defence Forces, Garda Síochána and civilian personnel who died serving on UN peacekeeping missions. It lists deployments in the Congo, Cyprus, Lebanon, the Middle East, Sarajevo, East Timor and elsewhere. IUNVA Post 19 keeps a second peacekeepers’ memorial in Bernard McGlinchey Town Park in central Letterkenny, if you want to see both.
Other features
Two historic gateways survive: a simple rubble-stone one on the western boundary, and a formal ashlar-stone one on the south, where cut-stone steps climb to the raised burial platform. The western boundary runs alongside the Forglug Burn, with mature trees and birdlife along the water. The National Library of Ireland holds glass-negative photographs of the cemetery taken by Robert French between 1865 and 1914, useful if you want to see how the layout has changed.
A separate site with the same name
Conwal is also the name of the parish, and Conwal Parish Church in Letterkenny is a separate site in the town centre. The gravestones and folklore linked to that church are not here, so do not look for them at the cemetery.
Getting there and visiting
The cemetery is west of Letterkenny on the Churchill road and is small enough that a short walk covers everything. For navigation, use 54.9438 N, 7.7787 W. There is no visitor centre or ticket office. Check the local council or the cemetery’s own notices for any access arrangements, and do not rely on a particular parking spot.
Some parts of the site, such as the cut-stone steps at the south gateway, will be hard going for visitors with limited mobility. This is an active burial ground, so use the cemetery entrance, give people visiting graves space and keep noise down near newer plots. Treat the carved stones and walls gently: they are fragile, so don’t climb on them and leave them undisturbed. Allow around half an hour for the ruins and main memorials, or up to an hour if you want to read the older inscriptions and the architectural detail properly.
Nearby
- Newmills Corn and Flax Mills (west of Letterkenny on the R250) – a restored industrial complex with a working waterwheel. Check current opening before you go.
- Conwal Parish Church (Letterkenny town centre) – the 17th-century successor to the old parish site.
- Donegal County Museum (Letterkenny) – in a former workhouse, with exhibits on the county’s archaeology and social history.