Burial ground, Dromduvane, Co. Cork

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Burial Grounds

Burial ground, Dromduvane, Co. Cork

On a six-inch Ordnance Survey map drawn up in 1842, a small plot at Dromduvane in West Cork was recorded with a particular designation: "Burial ground for children.

" That label points to a practice once common across rural Ireland, the setting aside of unconsecrated ground for the interment of unbaptised infants and others excluded from formal church burial. These sites, sometimes called cillíní or killeeens, are scattered throughout the Irish landscape, often in marginal spots, old enclosures, or at parish boundaries, quietly absorbed into the ground over generations.

What makes Dromduvane distinctive is its setting within a circular enclosure, a form that frequently indicates early medieval or prehistoric origins, repurposed across centuries for different uses. Inside the enclosure, clusters of stones are visible that may mark individual burials, modest and uncut, placed rather than inscribed. To the east, two possible stone-lined graves have been identified, a type of burial feature known from early Christian contexts in Ireland, where flat slabs were arranged around the body rather than a coffin being used. Whether the enclosure predates its use as a children's burial ground by centuries, or whether the circular form reflects some other boundary history, is not recorded.

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