What is recorded here

Seventy children slept beneath a shallow pasture hollow until road builders cut through their quiet stack. They had buried so many in that small circle that newer graves crushed older bones, forcing the living to dig deeper and harder each time. Shroud pins and coffin nails still lie scattered among the truncated remains, testifying to repeated loss in one narrow stretch of County Kildare.

On the S-face, just off the crest, of a low narrow, E-W pasture ridge. A shallow sub-circular hollow (7m N-S; 5m E-W; D 08-1m), open towards the S, contains some half-dozen low, largely earthfast, unworked, field stones (av. max L 0.5m; Wth 0.4m; H 0.2m) marking burials. Smaller field-cleared stones have been thrown into the site. In 2002, archaeological testing (Excavation licence no. 02E0301 Online www.excavations.ie Accessed 08 August 2012) in advance of construction of the M7 Heath–Mayfield Motorway Scheme revealed the disarticulated remains of an infant, confirming the presence of a children’s burial-ground. Subsequent geo-physical survey and excavation in 2003, (Excavation licence nos. 03E0184 and 03E0350 Online www.excavations.ie Accessed 08 August 2012) revealed the remains of some 70 child inhumations, with the volume of burial activity having caused multiple truncations to the remains. Finds included shroud pins, coffin nails and organic materials. Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy Date of upload: 23 August 2012

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