The earthwork enclosure, a ringfort being a circular raised or embanked enclosure typically dating from the early medieval period and used as a farmstead or place of refuge, was at some point repurposed for a far quieter and more sorrowful function: the burial of unbaptised children.

This kind of site, sometimes called a cillín or killeen, reflects a long and quietly painful tradition in rural Ireland. Unbaptised infants, considered by church doctrine to be ineligible for consecrated ground, were often interred instead in liminal places, locations that sat outside the ordinary boundaries of parish life. Ancient earthworks like ringforts were a common choice, places already set apart from the surrounding landscape, already carrying some older sense of sanctity or separateness. The Dromultan site was recorded in 1986 by the Castleisland District Archaeological Survey, which noted the reuse of the ringfort interior for this purpose. Significantly, the 1841 edition of the Ordnance Survey six-inch map already marks it as a burial ground for children, meaning the practice was well established and locally recognised by the early nineteenth century at the very least. The outline of the ringfort itself remains visible on aerial imagery taken as recently as 2021.