What is recorded here

More often than not, the small stones are the first things you notice. They stand out like the heads of sleeping children, packed close together on the ridge above the lake. The church keeps one edge, fences keep the others, and the land itself seems to hold them in a narrow circle. It is not a grand graveyard or a formal museum space. It is a small, crowded place where young lives ended before records, namestones or ceremony could give them back.

Located adjacent to a Kildermot church (MA040-074001-), on a narrow ridge top overlooking Balymore Lake. A strip of relatively level ground on the ridge top wraps around the E, S and SW side of the church forming an irregular-shaped terrace from the edge of which there is a steep drop to the lake shore. This terrace has been used as a children’s burial ground, indicated on the 1838 and 1929 OS 6-inch maps. The SE−S edge of the terrace is defined by a scarp (H 2m) merging with the steep ridge slope, and at SW−W by a low sod-covered stony scarp (H c. 0.5m). The church borders the NW side of the burial area and field fences define its limits at NE and W. The enclosed grass-grown space (c. 30m NE−SW; c. 15m NW−SE at E end, 5.4m NW−SE at SW end) is dotted with numerous, low upright uninscribed stone grave-markers, most of which barely protrude above the ground surface. Attached images: MA040-074002-_01.JPG viewed from SW MA040-074002-_02.JPG viewed from S MA040-074002-_03.JPG viewed from N Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy Date of upload: 5 June 2020

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.