Burial

The National Monuments Service's description

In January 1995 a lintel grave containing an inhumation burial was discovered on this island. It was located on the south side of the island, where erosion had exposed it in long section. The grave had been partially destroyed and lay on the high-tide line. Some of the human remains eroding out of the section had been removed to Donegal County Museum. The cist was rectangular in plan with its long axis aligned east/west. The surviving portion measured approximately 1.7m long by 0.4m wide by 0.3m high. Erosion had exposed the southern side of the cist, and only two collapsed side stones survived. The north side was formed of three edge-set slabs, each approximately 0.5m in length, with the flat sides facing inwards. The ends of the cists were not closed, but one stone found lying flat near the west end might represent a collapsed end stone. A number of courses of flat stones survived above the southern side walls. The cist contained an extended inhumation of an adult female (NMI 1995:175) lying west/east and no accompanying artefacts were found. Much of the skeleton had been removed prior to excavation, but the skull was found at the western end. A number of lintel graves had been excavated in the same location by Raghnall Ó Floinn in 1988 (DG0238-033----) (Ó Floinn 1992).(Cahill and Sikora 2011, ii, 18-21)

Compiled by: Paul Walsh

Date of upload: 15 April 2014

References

Ó Floinn R. 1992 A lintel grave cemetery at Killygarvan, Co. Donegal. Donegal Annual 44, 42-50.

Cahill, M. and Sikora, M. (eds) 2011 Breaking ground, finding graves - reports on the excavations of burials by the National Museum of Ireland, 1927-2006, 2 vols. Dublin. Wordwell Ltd. in association with the National Museum of Ireland.