Eastwood Vault

The small stone building that stands in the centre of the graveyard has often been speculated upon. It is however widely accepted now as the Eastwood Family Vault.

There is a plaque inside the Church to Mary Eastwood. It begins with the words ..’In the family vault near this Church lie the remains ……..’. The plaque goes on to tell us of the many Eastwood family members buried here. Mary, for example, was the wife of the Rev Gervais Tinley, rector of Faughart and Master of the Endowed Classical School of Dundalk. She dies aged 58 on 28th November 1858.

The alternative theory is that the small building was just an old watch-house erected to guard against corpse-stealers.

Before the Reformation Creggan rectory was given to the Priory of Culdee.

A recent study of Dr Geraldine Carville argues for a much earlier date of construction of this building – perhaps by a thousand years – and links it with St Jarlath who was reputedly born just ten miles from Creggan. He became the third Bishop of Armagh (467-481 A.D.). 

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