Souterrain, Gort Na Cille, Co. Kerry

Co. Kerry |

Settlement Sites

Souterrain, Gort Na Cille, Co. Kerry

On the southern slope of a ridge overlooking Kenmare Bay, a rectangular enclosure in rough pasture holds rows upon rows of small, uninscribed upright stones.

These are grave-markers for unbaptised infants, set out in neat east-west lines across a level interior. The place is what was once known in Ireland as a cillín, an informal burial ground used for those whom the Church would not admit to consecrated ground. Unbaptised children, and sometimes others who died outside the sacraments, were quietly laid to rest in such liminal spots, often beside ancient earthworks, field boundaries, or, as here, sites with older archaeological significance. The practice was common across rural Ireland for centuries and continued in some areas well into the twentieth century.

What makes this particular enclosure unusual is the presence of a souterrain entrance at the western end of its southern side. A souterrain is an underground stone-lined passage, typically associated with early medieval settlement in Ireland, used variously for storage, refuge, or both. The opening here is rock-cut, measuring roughly 0.95 metres wide and 0.35 metres high, capped by a lintel, though a second, displaced lintel now blocks access to the passage beyond. The enclosure itself measures approximately 20.5 metres by 27.5 metres and is bounded mostly by modern walls, though to the east and south the boundary is formed by large slabs set on edge and natural rock outcrops. Among the upright grave-markers, most standing between 0.2 and 0.5 metres high though some considerably larger, a number of long flat slabs lie prostrate on the surface. Scattered quartz pieces appear across the eastern half of the enclosure, a material that recurs at burial and ritual sites throughout prehistoric and early medieval Ireland, though its significance here is not recorded.

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