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Childrens Burial Gd. (Disused)

Children's burial ground

What is recorded here

On a rise in Galway farmland, rows of small graves stretch north to south, capped by an inscribed slab marking a three-year-old child buried in 1827. Local tradition holds that an adult laid to rest there in 1875 broke the child-only purpose and closed the ground. The narrow walkway and drystone wall still frame that transgressive moment, preserving a place where ordinary rules of death were overturned.
On rise in gently undulating farmland. Well-preserved rectangular area (N-S c. 26m, E-W c. 7m) defined by a scarp, outside of which runs a narrow walkway surrounded by a drystone wall. A large quantity of grave-markers, aligned N-S, are visible. There are three notable graves in NE section: (a) a flat undressed flagstone with two headstones at W end; (b) to NW, a rectangular grave delimited by set stones; and (c) to NE, an inscribed graveslab, bordered by set stones, dedicated to a three-year-old child and dated 1827. The last burial, according to local tradition, was reputedly that of an adult whose inscribed tombstone is dated 1875. This burial resulted in the subsequent closure of the CBG. (O'Flanagan 1927, Vol. 1, 65) The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Galway Vol. II - North Galway'. Compiled by Olive Alcock, Kathy de hÓra and Paul Gosling (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1999). Date of upload: 05 August 2010
Christian burial ground, likely 18th to 19th century. Its significance lies in the presence of a large number of grave markers, suggesting a local site of communal burial, possibly for children, reflecting social or economic conditions of the time.

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What survives
Recorded monument

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