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Dotted outline, Killeen Grave Yard

Fairy fort / earthen ringfort

What is recorded here

Dotted outline, Killeen Grave Yard is an egg-shaped earthen ringfort in County Limerick, Ireland, where children who died without baptism were buried according to an 1838 account. Its broad eroded bank still encloses a gently sinking pasture, though no grave markers remain visible. The fort may have served people long before becoming a burial place, and it may have held families, herds or fears before it held the smallest dead.
Possible ringfort reused as a children's burial ground (LI034-001----). In pasture, on N-facing slope. Egg-shaped area (broad end to W; 50m E-W; 36m N-S) enclosed by broad eroded earthen bank (H c. 0.6m; Wth c. 8m) with external fosse SW->NW (D 0.3m; Wth 2.4m). Field boundary truncates enclosing bank at narrowest point to E. Interior slopes down gently towards centre; no visible surface trace of burials or burial markers. In 1838 the Ordnance Survey Name Books recorded that in the townland of Athea Upper. A large fort, in which children, who die without baptism, are buried (LI034-001-)' (OSNB Rathronan Parish, 1482). Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 20 May 2019 See attached ASI aerial photograph ASIAP – taken on 04/03/2006.

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What survives
Recorded monument

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