Pit-burial, Glenacunna, Co. Tipperary

Co. Tipperary |

Burial Sites

Pit-burial, Glenacunna, Co. Tipperary

In a field of undulating pasture in Glenacunna, County Tipperary, a small circle of stone once held the cremated remains of a single adult, undisturbed for roughly three and a half thousand years.

In 1975, bulldozing work broke open the pit grave, bringing to light what little survived of a burial that had been quietly sealed into the ground during the Bronze Age. The find was recorded by Twohig in 1976, and while the disturbance was significant, enough remained to piece together the basic form of the grave.

The pit was roughly circular, approximately 0.75 metres in diameter, and its interior had been lined, at least partially, with small stone slabs and dry-stone walling. That lining is a detail worth pausing on: it suggests a deliberate act of construction rather than a simple hole dug in haste, even if the whole structure was modest in scale. The cremated remains of one adult were found inside. About twelve metres to the west lies a double cist burial, a cist being a type of small stone-lined box grave used across Bronze Age Ireland and Britain, sometimes covered with a capstone and sometimes placed beneath a cairn or mound. The proximity of the two sites is what provides the pit burial with its probable date, since cist burials in Ireland are most commonly associated with the earlier part of the Bronze Age, broadly the second millennium BC. Whether the two burials were contemporary, or whether the pit grave was placed nearby in deliberate acknowledgement of an existing monument, is something the surviving evidence cannot answer.

Rated 0 out of 5

Visitor Notes

Review type for post source and places source type not found
Added by
Picture of Pete F
Pete F
IrishHistory.com is passionate about helping people discover and connect with the rich stories of their local communities.
Please use the form below to submit any photos you may have of Pit-burial, Glenacunna, Co. Tipperary. We're happy to take any suggested edits you may have too. Please be advised it will take us some time to get to these submissions. Thank you.
Name
Email
Message
Upload images/documents
Maximum file size: 100 MB
If you'd like to add an image or a PDF please do it here.

Advertisement