Burial, Ballinagroun, Co. Kerry

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Burial Sites

Burial, Ballinagroun, Co. Kerry

Two small upright stones sit in waste ground behind a house near Castlemaine Harbour in County Kerry, less than a metre apart, unremarkable to a passing eye and yet locally understood to mark the graves of two soldiers.

There is no inscription, no enclosure, no formal monument. Just the stones, the ground, and a tradition of memory that has outlasted whatever records might once have documented who these men were or when they died.

The site was recorded by J. Cuppage as part of the Corca Dhuibhne archaeological survey of the Dingle Peninsula, published in 1986. The two stones differ slightly in size and orientation: the south-western stone stands 0.45 metres high, its long axis running east to west; the north-eastern stone is a little taller at 0.6 metres, oriented roughly south-east to north-west. The modest dimensions and informal arrangement suggest a burial practice outside the ecclesiastical mainstream, possibly reflecting an expedient interment at a time of conflict or hardship. The locality of Castlemaine Harbour, at the mouth of the River Maine where it meets Castlemaine Harbour on the northern edge of the Iveragh Peninsula, has seen its share of military activity across the centuries, though the soldiers in question remain unidentified. Local oral tradition has carried the association forward regardless, assigning meaning to stones that archaeology alone cannot fully explain.

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