Cist

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on a slight rise in gently undulating sand dune pasture. Not indicated on any edition of the OS 6-inch map. The account of the discovery of this burial is recorded in a letter to the Keeper of Irish Antiquities at the National Museum of Ireland, dated 14 August 1944, from the Garda Superintendent at Sligo. The letters records the following: 'I beg to inform you that while digging trenches in connection with Military exercises near the seashore at Bunduff, Cliffoney, one of the party . . . came upon a human skeleton. It was enclosed in a stone grave, the bottom, sides and top of which was made of 3/4 inch stone slabs, and the head and foot of thick square stones. The stone slabs forming the sides and roof of this grave were broken in places. Nothing was found in the grave except human remains. It was 2 1/2 foot from the surface of the earth. The coroner . . . was informed and he decided not to hold an inquest.' The bones were packed in a wooden box and forwarded to the National Museum. Further correspondence in the National Museum files dated 1948 records that the 'burial consited of an inhumation of a bdy which lay in a contracted positon on it side in the a cist 3 foot x 2 foot x 1 foot deep, lying 2 foot below the surface.' (NMI Topographical files). The exact location of this cist is unknown as the copy of the surviving copy of the map from 1944 on file in the National Museum is not of sufficient scale to enable the precise position to be plotted with an degree of confidence. In consequence, the location recorded for this record must be considered as indicative only. There is no visible evidence of the 'trenches' referred to in the above correspondence. There is a depression (L E-W 3m; Wth top N-S 1.3m; Wth base 0.55m; D 0.7m) in the sand hill near the shore c. 10m S of a vertical 25m high, N-facing, E-W orientated sea cliff which perhaps might be the site of this burial. The current coordinates are for this location. The grave has been tentatively dated to the early medieval period. (Cahill and Sikora 2011, Vol. 2, 167-8).

Compiled by: Paul Walsh

Date of upload: 20 January 2014

References

Cahill, M. and Sikora, M. (eds) 2011 Breaking ground, finding graves - reports on the excavations of burials by the National Museum of Ireland, 1927-2006, 2 vols. Dublin. Wordwell Ltd. in association with the National Museum of Ireland.