What is recorded here

Marram grass and shifting sand conceal a buried life beside Donegal Bay, where a human skull emerged in 2012 near a cluster of ancient cairns. The sea and wind had preserved the place long enough for memory to surface, then took the shape back into mystery. A hut site nearby suggests people lived, marked death and left the dunes to keep the rest.

In eroding, marram grass-covered sand dunes bordering an estuarine inlet on the N side of Donegal Bay, adjacent to a hut site (DG099-020----) and a cluster of cairns (DG099-021001- to DG099-021006-). In 2012 fragmentary remains of a human skull were noted eroding out of the sand adjacent to a cairn (DG099-021001-) (pers. comm. E. Pollard, 2012). The discovery was notified to An Garda Siochána who removed the skull from the find spot. The NMS and NMI were subsequently notified when it became clear that the skull was of archaeological significance and most likely from an ancient burial. The skull is currently in the care of the NMS, and a sample of bone from it will be radiocarbon dating. Attached image is courtesy of E. Pollard: DG099-024----_01.JPG Skull exposed in sand layer Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy Date of upload: 24 January 2023

A Neolithic cist burial, likely dating to the 4th–3rd millennium BCE, associated with early funerary practices in the western Irish coastal zone. Its location among cairns and a hut site suggests a broader settlement and ritual landscape.

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