Children's burial ground, Tormaun, Co. Galway

Co. Galway |

Burial Grounds

Children’s burial ground, Tormaun, Co. Galway

In undulating grassland near the Raford River in County Galway, a modest rectangular enclosure holds the remains of children who, for centuries, were considered ineligible for burial in consecrated ground.

These sites, known in Irish as cillíní, were used across Ireland for the interment of unbaptised infants, and occasionally others who died outside the formal embrace of the Church, such as suicides, strangers, or the stillborn. They tend to occupy marginal land, boundaries, and liminal spaces, reflecting the ambiguous status assigned to those buried within them.

This particular enclosure measures roughly 18.5 metres east to west and 13.5 metres north to south, and is defined by a low earthen bank, now poorly preserved and damaged by digging along its western and northern sides. Inside, small set limestone blocks are arranged in north to south rows, with the graves themselves oriented east to west, a layout consistent with Christian burial tradition despite the site's exclusion from sanctified ground. The precise dates of use are unrecorded, but cillíní as a burial practice was widespread from at least the medieval period and continued in parts of rural Ireland well into the twentieth century. The location, roughly 80 metres south of the Raford River, places the site close to a natural boundary, which is typical of how these grounds were chosen.

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