Children's burial ground, Leataoibh Meánach, Co. Kerry
Co. Kerry |
Burial Grounds
At the foot of the north-western slopes of Lateevemore on the Dingle Peninsula, a small patch of ground barely distinguishable from the surrounding field marks a calluragh, the Irish term for an informal burial ground traditionally used for unbaptised infants and others excluded from consecrated earth.
These sites, sometimes called cillíní, occupy a peculiar and melancholy place in Irish rural life, neither fully sacred nor entirely secular, and this one is no exception. What makes this example additionally striking is that it has gone largely unnoticed even in its immediate landscape, its southern and south-western edges identifiable only by the rough, uncultivated character of the soil rather than any formal boundary.
The burial ground is roughly rectangular, measuring about 11.4 metres north to south and 5.7 metres east to west. Its northern edge is marked by a low scarp with two large boulders, its western side by three standing stones, and its eastern boundary follows a field fence. The southern half of the enclosure sits noticeably higher than the northern half, the step between the two levels formed by a line of recumbent stones. Standing within the site, leaning heavily to the north-east, is an early cross-slab just under a metre tall. On its south-western face, a large roughly equal-armed cross has been incised, its terminals widely expanded, with small dots occupying the angles between the arms and the head of the cross. This dotted detail finds a close parallel on Stone D from the early Christian site at Reask, also on the Dingle Peninsula, as noted by Fanning in 1981, suggesting the two stones may share a common tradition of workmanship or iconography. The site was surveyed and documented as part of J. Cuppage's 1986 archaeological survey of the Corca Dhuibhne region.
The site sits roughly 150 metres north of an ancient route known as the Saints Road, a pilgrimage path crossing the peninsula towards Mount Brandon. Visitors who do locate it should be aware that the ground is active farmland; cattle have been a persistent presence and have caused ongoing damage to the site. A stone water trough installed at the northern end has already partly displaced the cross-slab, and the long-term condition of both the slab and the burial ground itself remains a concern.