The Gates of Heaven

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The Gates of Heaven, Kilranelagh Cemetery, on a frosty late winter afternoon.

These two stones in Kilranelagh Cemetery on Kilranelagh Hill near Baltinglass are variously identified as orthostats of a prehistoric tomb and surviving gateposts of an earlier graveyard. According to an old custom, if a coffin is carried between the stones on the way to burial, the deceased will go straight to heaven.

Richard Marsh, author of Tales of the Wicklow Hills.