Grave Yard, Knockash, Co. Galway

Co. Galway |

Burial Grounds

Grave Yard, Knockash, Co. Galway

In the marshy ground at Knockash, a small rectangular enclosure sits raised slightly above the surrounding wetland, its stone wall holding back both the bog and a particular kind of history.

This is a cillín, a children's burial ground of the type found across rural Ireland, where infants who died unbaptised were interred outside the bounds of consecrated ground. The Catholic Church historically refused such children a place in parish cemeteries, and so families turned to liminal spaces, old ruin sites, field boundaries, and marginal land. The Knockash example measures just nine metres by five, and within that modest space numerous small headstones are still visible, pushing up through the sod.

The site carries the quiet gravity common to cillíní. The raised platform, almost certainly the result of generations of burials in a confined and waterlogged area, is enclosed by a stone wall that has kept the ground somewhat distinct from the marsh around it. Roughly 270 metres to the south lies a holy well, a proximity that is unlikely to be accidental. Holy wells were frequently associated with healing, with ritual, and with the boundaries between the living and the dead, and the clustering of a cillín and a well in the same landscape reflects a older geography of sacred and semi-sacred places that predates the formal parish system. The small headstones, many of them simple and uncarved, speak to burials carried out with care but without ceremony.

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 Grave Yard, Knockash, 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