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Children's burial ground in Ballinloughaun

Children's burial ground

What is recorded here

Death came quickly in that region, robbing young parents of children before church rites could be completed. The community built a walled enclosure for those unborn souls, keeping them separate from the main graveyard but still within sacred ground. Ash trees now break through the stone rim, their roots gripping the buried dead while wind moves through bare branches above. What was hidden from official maps became visible through local memory, proving that love extends even where doctrine draws its line.
In pasture, on a slight E-facing slope, close to the E boundary of a rectangular field. This children’s burial ground is not shown on the 1838 and 1922 OS 6-inch maps. It consists of a roughly square enclosure (13m E-W; 11.50 N-S) defined by tumbled remnants of a drystone stone wall (Wth 1.5m; int. H 0.2-0.3m; ext. H 0.3m). The enclosing wall is slumped to a low, moss-covered jumble of stones, with heaps of loose field clearance stones overlying it at W and SW. The interior, which slopes slightly to E reflecting the natural slope, is not raised relative to exterior ground level; it is strewn with loose stones. Ash trees grow on the enclosing wall and in the interior. According to local information, this enclosure was used as a burial ground for unbaptised babies. Compiled by: Jane O'Shaughnessy Date of upload: 16 August 2019

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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