Burial

The National Monuments Service's description

In a partially quarried away esker, immediately N and downslope from a standing stone (KD032-012001-). In 1987, burials were discovered when an access road was being created. A linear area (L c. 150m E-W; min. Wth c. 10m at W; max. Wth c. 38m at E) had been disturbed and was subsequently archaeologically excavated (Keeley 1987. Excavation Licence No. E000420). Nine extended inhumation burials in simple shallow graves, without grave goods, together with the remains of a further 16 disturbed burials were uncovered, as well as pottery and iron objects. Portion of a possible enclosing ditch (D 0.8m; Wth 3m) and a hearth were also found. In the absence of definitive dating evidence and pending the results of Carbon 14 analysis of bone, the excavator could only conclude that the site probably dated to any time from the Iron Age (c. 500 BC- AD 400) through to medieval times (5th to16th-century AD). (Keeley 1991a, 161-7)

Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy

Date of upload: 15 October 2013

This monument is subject to a preservation order made under the National Monuments Acts 1930 to 2014 (PO no. 7/1973).

References

Keeley, V.J. 1991a. Excavation at the “Longstone”, Kilgowan, Journal of the Kildare Archaeological Society, 17, 161-7.

Keeley, V.J. 1987. The archaeological investigation and excavation of a site in Kilgowan townland, Co. Kildare. Unpublished report, National Monuments Service, Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Dublin.