Fort, Lissaniska, Co. Galway

Co. Galway |

Enclosures

Fort, Lissaniska, Co. Galway

On a low hillock rising out of undulating grassland in County Galway, a children's burial ground sits quietly inside what was once a prehistoric fort.

The combination is unusual but not accidental. Across Ireland, such burial grounds, known as cillíní, were frequently established within the enclosures of older earthworks, places already set apart from ordinary land use and understood, in some half-articulated way, as belonging to a different order of things. Children who died unbaptised were excluded from consecrated ground under Catholic practice, and so communities found other spaces for them, old and liminal ones.

The fort itself was recorded on the 1838 edition of the Ordnance Survey six-inch map as a subrectangular enclosure, roughly 25 metres north to south and 20 metres east to west. By the time the 1946 edition was produced, it had been partially levelled, and today only a low bank on the eastern side remains to indicate where the original boundary ran. What began as a defined and substantial enclosure on a commanding little summit has been reduced, over roughly a century, to a single earthen remnant.

Rated 0 out of 5

Visitor Notes

Review type for post source and places source type not found
Added by
Picture of Pete F
Pete F
IrishHistory.com is passionate about helping people discover and connect with the rich stories of their local communities.
Please use the form below to submit any photos you may have of Fort, Lissaniska, Co. Galway. We're happy to take any suggested edits you may have too. Please be advised it will take us some time to get to these submissions. Thank you.
Name
Email
Message
Upload images/documents
Maximum file size: 100 MB
If you'd like to add an image or a PDF please do it here.

Advertisement