Burial, Ballyterrim, Co. Galway

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Burial Sites

Burial, Ballyterrim, Co. Galway

In May 1992, workers digging a cable trench for the ESB on a gentle south-west-facing slope in Ballyterrim, County Galway, broke through the soil at a depth of between thirty centimetres and half a metre and found themselves looking at human remains.

The skeletons, possibly those of two adults and a child, had been lying undisturbed beneath ordinary pastureland, around 120 metres west of a local stream. By the time an inspection could be carried out, the trench had already been backfilled, leaving only scattered fragments of human bone and traces of burnt clay as evidence of what had been uncovered.

The burnt clay is a detail worth pausing on. In Irish archaeological contexts, scorched or fired earth found in association with burials can point to a range of practices across many different periods, from prehistoric cremation rites to later traditions involving the deliberate heating of soil. Without any formal excavation having taken place before the trench was closed, it is impossible to assign a confident date or cultural context to these remains. The site carries no monument status, no enclosure, and no recorded grave goods; it exists in the record almost purely because a utility cable happened to pass through it. That the burial included what may have been a child alongside adults adds a quiet human dimension to what is otherwise a very sparse account.

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