Burial

The National Monuments Service's description

On a SE facing slope at the E end of the Carnfree ridge. The structures (RO028-075001; RO028-075005-) are within a rectangular enclosure (RO028-075002-) (int. dims 42.3m E-W; 29.5m N-S) defined by earthen banks (Wth 2m; H 0.3-0.5m) which may have been a graveyard, and burials, both pre- and post-dating the church structures, were found inside and outside both structures. A number of neo-natal remains recovered in the area supports a local tradition that the structures continued in use as a children's burial ground (RO028-075012-) after the church buildings were abandoned in the late sixteenth or seventeenth century. (Shanahan 2006, 6-9; 2009, 455-6).

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 13th September, 2010.

References

Shanahan, B. 2006 Recent research in Roscommon by the Discovery Programme's Medieval Rural Settlement Project. Bullitin of the Group for the Study of Historic Irish Settlement, No. 11, 1-9.

Shanahan, B. 2009a Carns. Church site, deserted settlement and field system, possibly prehistoric. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 2006: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 455-6, No. 1715. Dublin. Wordwell.