Children's burial ground

The National Monuments Service's description

In a levelled moated site (KE048-043001-). In the 1840s 'a remarkable large Danish fort [KE048-043001-] in which is a burial ground for children, hence it is called by the inhabitants Killeen' was recorded (OSNB, Molahiffe, no. 1, 39). Prior to the levelling of the moated site in 1987, its interior was described in 1986 as undulating and uneven but no graves or grave-markers were noted (CDAS; O'Hare 2000, 15). According to O'Hare (1996, 70), rounds were made at the moated site by expectant mothers up until sixty or seventy years ago in the hope of securing a safe delivery and if a child was still-born, it was buried within the moated site. Having completed the rounds, patrons would throw a field-stone against a boulder which was located immediately outside the NE corner of the moated site (ibid.). (Castleisland District Archaeological Survey)

Compiled by: Elizabeth Byrne, Ursula Egan and Sheila Ronan, Archaeological Survey Unit, University College, Cork.

Date of upload: 31 January 2011

References

OSNB - Ordnance Survey Name Books. Pro-forma books arranged by Civil Parish for recording townland and other name-forms and compiled in the course of the OS 6-inch survey 1824-1841. The name books also include minor names and incidental references to antiquities. National Archives of Ireland.

O'Hare, P. 2000 Holy wells and other sites of pilgrimage within a portion of East Kerry. Journal of the Kerry Archaeological and Historical Society 29, 55-98.