On a west-facing slope in County Galway, a roughly subrectangular enclosure stretches about 55 metres east to west and just 5 metres wide, bounded by a stone wall with a single entrance to the north. Most of what lies within dates from recent centuries. But the proportions are odd, the orientation deliberate, and the name suggests this patch of ground has been set apart for the dead for far longer than the visible headstones imply.

The clue lies in the place name itself. Killaghaun, shared by both the graveyard and the townland it occupies, follows a pattern common across Ireland in which the element "kill" derives from the Irish "cill", meaning a church or monastic cell. Such names typically point to an early Christian foundation, sometimes reaching back to the sixth or seventh century, when itinerant clerics established small enclosed communities across the Irish landscape. O'Flanagan, writing in 1927, noted the significance of the name in this context, treating it as circumstantial but meaningful evidence that the site predates the modern burials it now holds. The narrow, elongated shape of the enclosure is itself a feature sometimes associated with early medieval burial grounds, which were often modest in width and carefully walled off from surrounding farmland.