The burials began in 1536 and finished in 1933, when the last person was buried*. The burials in St. Nicholas’ Parish Churchyard include people from all walks of life, landed gentry, businessmen, tradesmen, and working-class parishioners. The denomination of St. Nicholas’s Parish Church is Church of Ireland (Anglican/Episcopalian), and the parish and churchyard have been linked to the town of Dundalk for hundreds of years. The burial registers list over 4,000 Protestant burials, including a number of Presbyterian and Wesleyan entries. *While the last burial (of ashes) took place in 1933, it isn’t possible to say when the first occurred – perhaps soon after the foundation of the church. The oldest monument dates from 1536.
Saint Nicholas’s Parish Church is located between Church Street, Nicholas Street and Church Lane (now Yorke Street). The grounds of St. Nicholas’s Parish Church have been a site of worship for over seven hundred years. Only part of the current building is original as its form has changed many times over the last three hundred years. One of the highest points in the town, in the past it was one of the landmarks that could be seen as boats came into Dundalk Bay and Harbour. The area in front of the Church was a hive of activity with a peddlers’ market located there. Today St Nicholas’s is still considered a unique landmark of the Dundalk skyline with its green spire. While it is reported that the sea came up to the back walls of the churchyard, this was not the case as the original town boundary was further down Wellington Place (now St. Mary’s Road).
