What is recorded here

On a narrow rise between the Goulaun River and Letterkeen Hill, a small rectangular pit held the cremated bones of an adult and an inverted pygmy vessel. People may have gathered there across generations, marking death with fire and clay before building a rath above the older graves. The bog and mountain still keep the shape of that choice, preserving a life reduced to ash but never forgotten.

Located on a rise in the middle of a plateau bounded by the Goulaun River on one side and by the steep rise of Letterkeen Hill on the other, in an area of mountainous and boggy terrain. This pit-burial was excavated (E000015) in 1950 by Ó 'Ríordáin and Mac Dermott (1950-51, 95). It consisted of a pit (0.4m x 0.3m; D 0.15m), roughly rectangular in plan, completely filled with the cremated bones of an adult. An inverted pottery pygmy vessel was found in the upper levels of the bones. The burial was dated to the Bronze Age. A possible burial cairn (MA046-004001-), three other cists (MA046-004002-; MA046-004003-; MA046-004004-) and another pit burial (MA046-004005-), also dated to the Bronze Age, were found in close proximity. At a later period, these features were overlain by a rath (MA046-004007-). Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy Date of upload: 9 April 2019

Pit-burial in Letterkeen is a simple prehistoric burial, likely dating to the Neolithic or Early Bronze Age. Its location suggests it was part of a broader funerary or ritual landscape in a challenging upland environment.

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