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Children's burial ground in Clerhaun

Children's burial ground

What is recorded here

Clerhaun is a children's burial ground inside a Galway ringfort where moss-covered stones still mark small bodies buried before adult rules reached the field. Whitethorn bushes lean over the narrow ground as if guarding what the village stopped naming. Children died young everywhere, but this is the place where they stopped being called children and became the dead.
Within a ringfort (GA041-019----). An unenclosed subrectangular area (NW-SE 14.4m, NE-SW 9.8m), in fair condition, within which small set moss-covered stones are visible, haphazardly arranged. A number of whitethorn bushes are growing in the vicinity. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Galway Vol. II - North Galway'. Compiled by Olive Alcock, Kathy de hÓra and Paul Gosling (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1999). Date of upload: 05 August 2010
A possible early Christian or medieval children's burial ground; significance lies in its association with a ringfort and potential insight into local burial practices.

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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