Children's burial ground

The National Monuments Service's description

Ballintaggart church (KE053-033001-) (site of) and old burial ground (KE053-033002-) /An Cheallúnach or An Lisín: This circular enclosure crowns the summit of a low, but prominent, hillock between Dingle Harbour and Trabeg. The site of a church is shown within the enclosure on the OS maps, but nothing more is known about this, and no visible trace survives. Children were still being interred in the burial ground in the mid-19th century (OSNB Garfinny, 28). A low cairn of stones, including much quartz, lies c. 13m to E of the enclosure and 'other tombs with great unshapen stones half buried' lay a little to E of this again (OSL). The burial ground measures 30.7m N-S x 29.5m E-W internally and is enclosed by a low earthen bank, faced externally by a drystone-built wall. The bank rises a maximum of 1m above the interior, but is generally lower, and the wall is 1.45m high above the shallow fosse which encircles it. The fosse is c. 1m wide and no more than 0.3m deep below the external ground level. No entrance exists through the wall, and access to the interior is by means of 2 stiles at N and SW. On examination of earlier accounts of the site (OSL; OSNB; Romilly Allen 1892, 255-6), it seems certain that the site was originally enclosed by an earthen bank and fosse and that the wall was added sometime between the 1840's and the 1890's. The interior is raised above the external ground level and the central area is raised again above the edges giving the impression of a shallow internal fosse. Apart from the ogham stones (KE053-033005/014-), which were placed here in recent times, the interior is occupied by a confusion of low mounds and low upright grave markers.

The above description is derived from J. Cuppage, ‘Corca Dhuibhne. Dingle Peninsula archaeological survey. Ballyferriter. Oidhreacht Chorca Dhuibhne’ (1986), no. 820. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Revised by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of revised upload: 4 July 2022

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.

OSL - Ordnance Survey Letters. Letters written by members of the Ordnance Survey's 'Topographical Department' (T. O'Conor, A. O'Curry, E. Curry, J. O'Donovan and P. O'Keeffe) sent to headquarters from the field (1834-41). MSS in Royal Irish Academy.

Allen, J. Romilly 1892 Notes on the antiquities in Co. Kerry visited by the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland and the Cambrian Archaeological Association, August 1891, Parts 1 and 2. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 22, 158-70; 255-84.

Cuppage, J. 1986 Corca Dhuibhne. Dingle Peninsula archaeological survey. Ballyferriter. Oidhreacht Chorca Dhuibhne.