What is recorded here

Kill in Connahy is a gravel hillock where numerous human bodies were reputedly buried during an epidemic because people refused to place them in the churchyard. The refusal suggests fear, disgust or belief that the dead were dangerous enough to keep separate from the living and the sacred. The hill may still hold that abandoned panic, not as mystery but as a warning about how quickly love can turn to distance when suffering appears.

In a report of a cist (KK010-100----) discovered in Foulksrath c. 1851, it was reported that, 'Bodies, also, have been found in a sand-hill at some distance from it; but the opinion with regard to them is, that they were placed there during an epidemic disease, when the people were unwilling that they should be buried in the churchyard' (Anon. 1849-51, 383). In the neighbouring townland of Connahy there is a gravel hillock (KK10-130----), c. 1km NNE of Foulksrath Castle (KK010-056001-) which is known locally as the 'Kill' and is where numerous human burials were reputedly found. It seems likely that this hillock is the place described in the mid-19th-century report. Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 19 January 2019

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