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Burial in Inishcaltra OR Holy Island

Burial

What is recorded here

Inishcaltra is a small Clare island where crowded shallow graves lie beside the round tower and St. Caimin’s church. People buried there after those buildings stood, pressing bodies into narrow ground until bone scattered and memory blurred. The island becomes a chamber of repeated loss, beautiful and brutal in its impatience with death.
Situated immediately NE of the round tower (CL029-009010-) and N and W of St. Caimin’s church (CL029-009011-) on Inis Cealtra. Numerous burials were excavated in this area in the 1970’s (de Paor 2013, 41, 58). They were shallow, with much disturbed and scattered bone. Although they were crowded together close to the foundations, the interments in these positions had been made after the construction of the buildings. Compiled by: Mary Tunney Date of upload: 9 November 2015
A medieval burial site associated with a church and round tower; significant for understanding early Christian activity and burial practices on a major monastic island in the Shannon Estuary.

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.

What survives
Recorded monument

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