Burial

The National Monuments Service's description

Within a medieval house (MA023-014008-) on Bailey Mór mound (MA023-014003-).
Françoise Henry (1945, 135) uncovered this burial in 1938 during the excavation of the house. It lay beneath the floor in the E corner of the single-room house, lying parallel to the SE wall, at a stratigraphic level that predated the construction of the house. It consisted of an extended human skeleton, oriented NE–SW with the head to SW. Lying on the area of the chest were a large egg-shaped quartz pebble, a long broken piece of granite, and a small flake of schist.
A burial (MA023-014027-) on the same orientation and at the same stratigraphic depth was found a few meters away immediately outside the SE wall of the house. Another burial (MA023-014026-) found within the house lay at a higher level and was on a slightly different orientation.
Greene (2009, 141) has postulated that this part of the mound may have been used as a Christian burial ground during the initial phase of monastic occupation on the island.

Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy

Date of upload: 25 July 20

References:

Henry, F. 1945 Remains of the Early Christian period on Inishkea North. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquities of Ireland 75, 127-155

Greene, S. 2009 Settlement, identity and change on the Atlantic Island of North-West Co. Mayo c. AD400-1100 (2 vols.) Unpublished PhD thesis submitted to University College Dublin.