What is recorded here

Formoyle Chilrens Burial Gd is a small irregular burial ground on a rough terrace near Gleninagh Mountain, named on maps from 1842 and still called Cillín Formaoil today. Plain unworked markers cluster in the north half, facing east across the Caher valley while the south edge drops away into a low scarp. Children likely died young in the nearby village of Cathair Bheannach, and their parents carried them up this terrace to lie beneath open sky instead of crowded church grounds. The place remains quiet because it is small, remote and unchanged, not because it was forgotten.

On a level terrace of rough grazing (500’ OD), in an earlier enclosure (CL002-025002-) near the foot of Gleninagh Mountain with panoramic views over the Caher valley to E and through the Khyber Pass to Galway Bay at NW. Indicated and named ‘Formoyle Children’s Burial Ground’ on the 1842 and 1915 eds. of the 6-inch OS maps and as ‘Cillín Formaoil’ on Robinson’s map (1977). An irregularly shaped burial ground (17.5m N–S x 14.7m E-W) defined by the earlier enclosure along its E side and by a low scarp elsewhere. Small plain unworked burial markers occur mainly in the N half, occasionally in E–W rows with small flat slabs to the S. Swan (1991, 108) recorded a bullaun and destroyed structure at this location, and suggested it was an early ecclesiastical site ‘degenerated… to the status of a killeen’. It is possible he confused this site with the bullaun (CL002-063001-) and church site (CL002-063002-) c.300m to the S. A deserted village ‘Cathair Bheannach’ that was still inhabited until at least the end of the 19th century (Gilmore 1995) lies c. 600m ESE. Compiled by: Mary Tunney and Ros Ó Maoldúin Date of upload: 2 December 2020

A portal dolmen dating to the Early Bronze Age; it is part of a small group of megalithic tombs in the western midlands and represents a significant example of early funerary architecture in the region.

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