Children's burial ground, Cloonnacat, Co. Galway
Co. Galway |
Burial Grounds
On the flat summit of an earlier earthwork in Cloonnacat, County Galway, there is a small burial ground that was never meant for adults.
Its modest dimensions, a shallow subrectangular depression measuring roughly 6.5 metres north to south, and the rows of small set stones within it mark it out as a cillín, the kind of unconsecrated ground where, for centuries, unbaptised infants and others excluded from Catholic churchyard burial were quietly interred. These sites occupy a particular and uncomfortable place in Irish social history, used out of necessity rather than choice, and often located at the margins of settled land or, as here, on older earthworks whose original purpose had long been forgotten.
The site sits on the summit of a pre-existing earthwork, a raised or embanked feature of earlier, uncertain origin that the burial ground appropriated for its own use. A slight bank encloses the depression on the north, east, and south sides, and small stones are set not only across the interior but along the top and inner edge of that bank. A few large unhewn limestone slabs are also present, unworked and placed without any apparent dressing, in keeping with the informal, unofficial character of cillín burial. Bushes grow among the stones, as they do at many such sites, giving the place a closed, slightly withdrawn quality that sets it apart from conventional graveyards.