What is recorded here

Killacolla holds a tiny rectangular cist built from six thin sandstone slabs, waiting beneath pasture on a slope above the River Shannon. Farmers revealed the chamber in 1989, but it gave up no bones, tools or ashes, leaving behind a small empty box instead of an obvious story. The nearby hearth, walls and cooking pit suggest people gathered, ate and remembered there, while the cist kept its own silence.

In reclaimed pasture, on a S-facing slope just below the summit of Prospect Hill, overlooking the River Shannon to the N. The cist was discovered in the early summer of 1989 during land reclamation, and subsequently archaeologically excavated by Martin G. Doody in September 1989 (Doody 1992; Doody 1993). The cist had been damaged but excavation revealed a rectangular cist (0.83m N-S; 0.43m E-W; D 0.32m) with its sides constructed of six thin sandstone slabs (Doody 1992, 217-8; Doody 1993, fig. 4). This was built in an oval pit (1.24m N-S; 0.79m E-W; D 0.39m). No artefacts, bones or finds of any type were recovered during the excavation. According to Doody (1992, 221) this structure 'falls into the category of short cists as defined by Waddell (1970)'. The excavation also revealed a possible cist (LI018-01104-) 2.5m to the E, a hearth (LI018-01103-) 2m to the S, a short section of pre-bog wall (LI018-01101-) 5m to the NE, and further pre-bog walls and clearance cairns (LI018-01105-, 06-, 07-, LI018-01301-, 02-), and a fulacht fia (LI018-01108-) in an area nearby to the E (see Doody 1993, fig. 2). Compiled by: Denis Power Date of upload: 26 August 2011

A stone cist, likely dating to the Early Christian or early medieval period; its location overlooking the River Shannon may indicate a ceremonial or funerary function within a wider landscape of significance.

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