Burial ground, Drumaveil, Co. Cavan

Co. Cavan |

Burial Grounds

Burial ground, Drumaveil, Co. Cavan

In the townland of Drumaveil, in the quietly drumlin-scattered landscape of County Cavan, there is a burial ground old enough to have earned a place in the national record of archaeological monuments, yet obscure enough that almost nothing about it has made it into the public domain.

That combination, recognised as significant but largely undescribed, is itself telling. Cavan is a county riddled with ancient burial sites, from prehistoric cairns to early medieval ecclesiastical enclosures, and a listed burial ground with no accompanying detail invites the kind of speculation that only solid evidence can resolve.

The townland name Drumaveil offers a small clue. "Drum" derives from the Irish droim, meaning a ridge or raised back of land, a word that recurs constantly across the Irish midlands and Ulster, usually describing the long, whale-back hills left behind by glacial action. Such elevated ground was frequently chosen for burial, both in prehistoric times and in the early Christian period, when small local cemeteries, sometimes attached to a church or chapel and sometimes not, were established across the countryside. Without further detail it is impossible to say whether this particular site is prehistoric, early medieval, or post-medieval in character, or indeed whether any surface remains are still visible.

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Pete F
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