What is recorded here

Calluragh Burial Ground at Kilcolman, County Kerry, marks a rare child-only burial area beside an Early Christian church. Low mounds, edge-set stones and scattered quartz pebbles still outline small graves on the southern slope above Ventry Harbour. The site remained in use until the nineteenth century, suggesting that families kept returning to this quiet edge of the world for their youngest dead.

National Monument No. 10044. Kilcolman/Cill na gColmán: An Early Christian church site KE042-141001- lying on the S slopes of an E-W spur of Lateevemore, overlooking Ventry Harbour. (3) The visible graves and gravemarkers are confined to the SW quadrant of the enclosure. The most clearly defined grave lies 5m NW of the ogham stone and consists of a low, roughly rectangular mound, 2.25m long NW-SE, its SW side delimited by 3 stones set on edge. The position of other graves are indicated by mounds, low upright stones or prostrate slabs. On the OS maps, graves were also marked in the NE part of the site, and the presence of 2 piles of quartz pebbles here, on the mound of stones already described (KE042-141002-), suggests that this area was reused for calluragh burials. Up until the 19th century, the site was used as a calluragh burial ground (KE042-141005-) (OSNB Marhin, 14). The above description is derived from J. Cuppage, ‘Corca Dhuibhne. Dingle Peninsula archaeological survey. Ballyferriter. Oidhreacht Chorca Dhuibhne’ (1986), no. 868. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 9 August 2013

Early Christian burial ground, 6th–9th century AD. Associated with a church site, indicating its significance as a religious and communal burial area in a coastal settlement.

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