Cist, Garrannaguilly, Co. Kilkenny
Co. Kilkenny |
Burial Sites
At Garrannaguilly in County Kilkenny, a prehistoric stone burial box sits near the summit of a sand and gravel hill, largely intact after what may be thousands of years in the ground.
It came to light not through a planned excavation but through quarrying, the kind of accidental discovery that has revealed a surprising number of Ireland's oldest monuments. The fact that it survived the quarrying process at all makes it quietly remarkable.
The structure is a cist, a small rectangular burial chamber built from flat slabs of stone, typically used during the Bronze Age to contain a crouched inhumation or cremated remains. This particular example measures approximately 1.5 metres by 0.75 metres and is described as completely intact, which is unusual given how many such features are disturbed or partially destroyed before they are recorded. It also sits very firmly set in the ground, suggesting careful original construction rather than a hastily assembled feature. Its position close to the highest point of the hill may reflect a deliberate choice by the people who built it; elevated locations were often favoured for burial in prehistoric Ireland, perhaps for reasons of visibility or symbolic separation from the living landscape below.