What is recorded here

Calluragh Burial Ground in County Kerry, Ireland, held only children. The last child was laid to rest there in the late 1930s, when the small D-shaped field stopped receiving new graves. Now holly and furze swallow the short upright markers, while a plaque by the road still names the babes sleeping beneath the soil.

This approximately D-shaped burial ground is located on top of a low rise, on the S side of the Sneem-Waterville road, and overlooks a wide tract of low-lying landscape to N. It was described as a 'burial place for children only' in the OSNB (Kilcrohane, 5), and was last used as a place of interment in the late 1930s (Sugrue 1993, 36). The overall dimensions of the site are 20.5m N-S x 29m E-W. Remnants of an enclosing bank of earth and stone are visible along the N and W sides. Its interior, densely overgrown with holly trees and furze bushes, is occupied by a number of N-S rows of uninscribed, upright grave-markers; these average .3m high. Located close to the E margin of the site is an L-shaped arrangement of slabs, set end-to-end and measuring 5.7m N-S x 1.9m E-W. Numerous quartz stones are scattered throughout the site and a modern plaque, inscribed 'In Loving Memory of the Babes Buried Here RIP', has been erected outside the site at N, facing the modern road. The above description is derived from A. O'Sullivan and J. Sheehan (compilers), 'The Iveragh peninsula: an archaeological survey of South Kerry'. Cork University Press (1996), no. 996. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 30 July 2013

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