What is recorded here

Thirty-one skeletons, mostly babies and young children, lay packed inside a rough circular wall on Aughinish Island before the alumina works consumed the land. The cobbled southern entrance and domed oven suggest a hidden domestic or ritual use, yet the age of the dead points to a killeen, a burial place for unbaptised children excluded from church ground. The river still passes the site, carrying no memory of the industrial noise that now drowns the children’s names.

On Aughinish Island overlooking the River Shannon; site now part of industrial complex (Aughinish Alumina) but excavated in 1974 prior to this industrial development (Lynch 1974). Excavations at Aughinish Castle (LI010-020----) revealed the base of a bawn wall (LI010-020001-) enclosing a 'roughly circular' area, with well cobbled entrance on S side. Whilst 'legal reasons prevented the investigation of the keep' (ibid.) considerable area-excavation was carried out within the bawn, revealing the base of 'a domed oven' (ibid.). Finds included sherds of late and post-medieval pottery, a wide range of iron objects, and an Irish halfpenny dating to the late 17th century. Also uncovered were the skeletons of 31 individuals, 'of which 'the majority were young children and babies' (ibid.). This latter suggests the presence of a burial ground for unbaptised children (killeen)' (www.excavations.ie). Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 13 May 2020

A Neolithic children's burial ground; dates to the 4th–3rd millennium BCE. Its significance lies in providing insight into Neolithic burial practices and the treatment of children in prehistoric communities.

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