Children's burial ground

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 (RO028-075011-), both pre- and post-dating the church structures, were found inside and outside both structures. A number of neo-natal remains in the same area supports a local tradition that it continued in use as a children's burial ground after the church buildings were abandoned in the late sixteenth or seventeenth century. (Shanahan 2006, 6-9; Shanahan and McNeary 2009, 455-6)

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 13th September, 2010.

References

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.

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.