RAHAN MONASTIC SITE - Offaly County Council

3.0 PHYSICAL EVIDENCE3.4 EcologyThe site mainly consists of closely grazed, damp, unimproved grassland running down to theClodiagh River. A rocky ridge of dry grassland runs alongside the river.Both the ruin in the new graveyard and the church to the east of the site have very little vegetation.However, there is a colony of parsley-piert (Aphanes arvensis) at the ruin in the new graveyard.The walls of the churchyard have a small colony of rusty-back fern (Asplenium ceterach) and somewall rue (Asplenium ruta-muraria). The old graveyard of the Church of Ireland has a woodlandcomponent of sycamore trees (Acer pseudoplatanus), most of which is not of any great interest.A common yew (Taxus baccata; in Irish, iúr) grows within the walls of the graveyard. Even thoughit looks like an insignificant specimen, it is of great importance for its link with the history andheritage of the site. Common yew was commonly planted in graveyards and “in some instanceswhere an ancient yew is situated alongside the path to the entrance of a Medieval church, it maywell be that the yew tree pre-dates the earliest part of the existing building” (The Eternal Yew,Trevor Baxter, 1992). The common yew was planted by early Christians to commemorate the buildingof churches until the discovery of the Irish Yew (Taxus baccata ‘Fastigiata’) in 1767 when this newspecies became more popular.Yew trees have a very unusual growth pattern and as a consequence are very hard to age. Itis possible for a single trunk to change into a multiple or compound trunk at any stage of itsdevelopment. If this occurs, multiple trees can form and if hollowing takes place between thetrees, it can appear as though they are entirely separate specimens. This being the case, it may bethat even though this appears to be an insignificant tree, it may be the peripheral remains of anancient yew, the heart of the tree having decayed and completely vanished. However, some yewsdo not attain a remarkable size, as they begin to hollow and then, instead of increasing in girthon the periphery, they become partially filled in with a new secondary trunk in the hollow area.In this case, this could be the entire ancient tree. Whichever the case, it is believed that this treeis more than 250 years old.Plate 45. Yew tree.52