What is recorded here

One third of an hour's walk from Dunfanaghy, a conical sandhill rose above the tide and hid a cist beneath rough stones. Local tradition called it the burial place of a giantess, but in 1897 Archdeacon Baillie and Captain Baillie opened it to find an elderly man and a younger woman. The following day roughs destroyed much of the cist, leaving only two partial skulls for identification in Dublin.

This record refers to a cist which was located on a sandhill near Dunfanaghy. It consisted of a conical mound topped with rough stones, and was, according to local tradition, the burial site of a giantess. It was investigated in 1897 by Archdeacon Baillie and his son Captain Baillie. Having dug into the mound, they found a flagstone (7 feet [c. 2m] by 5 feet [c. 1.5m]) covering a cist which contained human bones. The following day the cist and its contents were greatly damaged by ‘a number of roughs’, but parts of two skulls were saved and ‘sent to Dublin’ where they were identified as belonging to an elderly male and a younger, adult female (Frazer 1898, 49-52). The exact location of the cist was not recorded; it was described as being ‘situated on the top of a sandhill which, at high tide, is surrounded.’(ibid, 49). Compiled by: Jane O'Shaughnessy Date of upload: 27 August 2015

A small stone burial chamber (cist) associated with early Christian or prehistoric periods; its conical mound and local tradition of a giantess suggest a possible folkloric or ritual significance.

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