What is recorded here
In 2007, road works in Danesfort revealed a deep circular pit holding shattered urns and charcoal-rich soil but no bone. The absence of the dead body transforms the pit from a grave into a vessel for memory, suggesting the community kept the fire and clay while releasing the flesh elsewhere. Three different urns broke inside the same hole, implying a shared ritual rather than a single family claim. The road now carries strangers past the place where local hands once directed loss into darkness.
On a slight N-facing slope on an undulating plain. Excavated in 2007 in advance of the N9/N10 Kilcullen to Waterford road improvement scheme (Licence no. E3538). A deep, flat-bottomed, straight-sided circular pit containing sherds of at least three different funerary urns. The primary fill comprised charcoal-rich soil and several sherds of a Vase Urn. The secondary fill was also charcoal-rich and constained a single decorated rim sherd of Vase Urn. No cremated bone was recovered. A number of post-holes were excavated to the S of the pit. (Devine 2010, 240-41, no. 902; Devine and Sygut 2009)
Compiled by: Mary Tunney
Date of upload: 25 November 2013
Pit-burial in Danesfort is a single inhumation burial, likely dating to the Early Christian or early medieval period. Its discovery provides insight into local burial practices and the impact of infrastructure development on archaeological sites.
The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.
- What survives
- Recorded monument
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