What is recorded here

Killeen Burial Ground is a children's burial place on a boggy rise above the Ardsheelhane river in County Kerry. Its low stone bank encloses a small D-shaped area where short upright markers still stand in rows, suggesting generations of small losses were kept separate from ordinary adult death. The place may have existed because childhood mortality was common enough to require its own boundary, its own gap flanked by slabs, its own quiet address in the landscape.

Killeen Burial Ground: Situated on the summit of a rise in boggy pasture, this enclosed site is located a short distance W of the Ardsheelhane river. It is noted as a burial place for children in the OSNB (Kilcrohane, 33). It abuts a field boundary on its S side and is enclosed elsewhere by a low bank of earth and stone, revetted with drystone masonry. The bank is lm high and lm wide, and it encloses a D-shaped area which measures 11m N-S x 10m E-W. This is raised above external ground level and contains a dense scattering of loose stone and a number of upright grave-markers, averaging .3m high, many of which are arranged in N-S rows. A gap in the boundary at S is flanked by a pair of upright slabs. The above description is derived from O'Sullivan, A. and Sheehan, J. (compilers) 'The Iveragh peninsula: an archaeological survey of South Kerry'. Cork University press. (1996), no. 978. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 18 June 2013

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