Children's burial ground, Inchee, Co. Kerry
Co. Kerry |
Burial Grounds
On the Iveragh Peninsula in County Kerry, a dry-stone ringfort, or caher, was repurposed in the way that many such ancient enclosures were across rural Ireland: as a place to bury unbaptised children.
These burial grounds, known in Irish tradition as cillíní, occupied liminal spaces, sites that were neither fully consecrated nor entirely secular, and the reuse of prehistoric or early medieval structures for this purpose was far from unusual. What marks this particular site at Inchee is the combination of two distinct layers of use, and the quiet ritual life that appears to have continued there well into more recent centuries.
The southern half of the site holds a scattering of loose stones, among them pieces of quartz, along with a number of upright slabs. These are thought to belong to the period when the caher served as a children's burial ground. Quartz was frequently placed at burial sites across Ireland, its white brightness carrying associations that are difficult to pin down precisely, though the practice is ancient and widespread. Beyond the burials, the site was also a place of active devotion: the Ordnance Survey Name Books recorded that penances were performed here on Good Fridays, suggesting that the location retained a sacred character in local religious life, layered over whatever functions it had served in earlier periods.
The upright slabs in the southern portion of the enclosure are the most visible indication of the burial ground's extent. Visitors who know what a caher is, a roughly circular enclosure built from unmortared stone, characteristic of early medieval Ireland, will recognise the underlying structure, though the stones associated with the children's graves give this particular example a quieter, more sombre character than a purely archaeological site might convey.