What is recorded here

Foilakilly is a small townland in County Cork where local memory claims a children’s burial ground, though no visible trace remains. In 2016 archaeologists found only a nineteenth-century settlement, with nothing to mark a grave or confirm the old claim. The place therefore holds two truths at once: a lived human home and a lost child-memory that resists proof.

According to local information a 'cillíneach' or children's burial ground was located in the townland of Foilakilly (ITM coordinates 485937, 542804). Archaeological investigations undertaken at the site in 2016 (licence number 16E0583) established that this was the location of a 19th century settlement. Nothing in the grounds of this small settlement indicated that it had once been used for burial purposes (Harte 2016, 17). In consequence and pending further evidence the precise location of this possible burial ground must remain unknown. (Ronan et al. 2009, no. 16,952) Compiled by: Paul Walsh Date of upload: 29 November 2016

Children's burial ground, likely medieval in date; significant as a rare example of a dedicated infant or child burial site in the region.

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.