What is recorded here

Clais na Marbh, the death hollow, is remembered on the strand between Brandon and Caher point. The sea stripped the beach once and showed headstones, boards and bones before taking them back. People still point to different places along that shore, as if the dead refused to stay in one line.

There are several accounts of a burial ground at the back of the strand between Brandon village and Caher point, on the W side of Brandon Bay. Different locations are indicated by each account and there are no surviving remains visible at any of these. It is therefore not clear whether some of the locational details are incorrect or whether there is more than one burial ground; the former seems more likely. 'Headstones, boards and bones' were exposed by the action of the sea, sometime during the first half of the 19th century (OSNB Cloghane, 29), about 6 chains (120m) W of Carrignakilla. However, the location of the burial ground was later described as 'near Brandon Quay, between 2 sand-banks' (Hitchcock 1852, 136). Local information places it at the above co-ordinates, about 300 to 400m W of Carrignakilla and about 500m S of Brandon Quay. It is known locally as Clais na Marbh. The above description is derived from J. Cuppage, ‘Corca Dhuibhne. Dingle Peninsula archaeological survey. Ballyferriter. Oidhreacht Chorca Dhuibhne’ (1986), no. 890. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 7 August 2013

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