Toome Church and Cemetery

Ballyoughter is a village in the Electoral Division of Balloughter which is in the Civil Parish of Toome and the Barony of Gorey.

The Parish of Toome has been known by many names with some of its previous incarnations being Tombe, Tomb, Tome and Tuaim to name but a few. The parish is unusual in that it is partly in the Barony of Gorey (Gory) but mainly in the Barony of Scarawalsh (Scarawalch). You can view the parish which is split between the two Baronies on TCD website’s interactive Down Survey maps (Access these maps at ‘The Past/Historical Maps’). Toome is derived from the Irish word Tuaim meaning mound or ‘tumulus’. A ‘tumulus’ is mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves.

The Parish Church ruins and cemetery are in the townland of Ballinclare (approximately 7km south-west of Gorey town on the road between Clough and Camolin) and are well worth a visit. The church dates to the early 1600s and consists of a nave and chancel. It was known to be in good repair in 1615 but has long since been affected by the ravages of time.

Outside the church, on the south-west corner, there is a large ‘Bullaun Stone’. The Bullaun Stone has a well-established association with many early churches in Ireland. A Bullaun, from the Irish word Bullán, is the term used for the depression in a stone which is often filled with water. Natural rounded boulders or pebbles may have sat in the Bullaun. The Bullaun Stones were also known as ‘cursing stones’ or ‘curing stones’. Local folklore often associated religious or even magical significance to the stones. It was believed the water collected in the stone could heal and cure people. 

The graveyard at Toome is still being used for burials. It is rectangular in shape and defined by a bank of earth with a stone-facing exterior. There are some excellent 18th century gravestones present in among the later, more modern additions.