What is recorded here

Carrowmore contains a circular children's burial ground, not a fortress, although old surveys called it a fort. The mistake happened because a small ring of stones resembles a fort on a map. The chamber is about twenty-two metres across, set in a farming field above the Glentogher river. Its eastern wall still rises one and a half metres, while ploughing has taken much of the rest. Stones inside may mark the graves of children, and the west side may have had an entrance. The place is small enough to walk around in a minute, yet it preserves a brutal fact: even in a remote Irish landscape, childhood ended without warning.

Internal diam. c. 22m. Originally marked as a 'Fort' (DG020-008001-), and subsequently as a 'Children's Burial Ground' on the OS 6-inch maps. The remains are overgrown and have been eroded by ploughing, so that the stone-built enclosing wall survives only on the E side, to a maximum height of 1.5m. There is a possible entrance on the W side and stones in the interior may mark burials. It is situated in a cultivated field, which slopes towards the E to the Glentogher river. The above description was derived from the 'Archaeological Survey of County Donegal. A description of the field antiquities of the County from the Mesolithic Period to the 17th century.' Compiled by: Brian Lacey with Eamon Cody, Claire Cotter, Judy Cuppage, Noel Dunne, Vincent Hurley, Celie O'Rahilly, Paul Walsh and Seán Ó Nualláin (Lifford: Donegal County Council, 1983). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated. Date of upload: 22 September 2008

A Neolithic passage tomb, dating to approximately 3500–2500 BCE, originally part of the Carrowmore megalithic complex; significant as one of the earliest and most important Neolithic burial sites in the west of Ireland.

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