Burial ground in Kilbane

In woodland, on a gentle SW-facing slope, c. 25m to E of Groody Road and c. 70m to E of the Groody River. Mary Magdalene’s Well (LI005-034001-) is located within. Depicted on the revised 1938 ed. OS 25-inch map as a subrectangular-shaped enclosure (approx.12m NW-SE; 9.5m NE-SW). Obscured by tree cover on Digital Globe orthophotos taken 2011-13 and Google Earth orthoimage taken 02/07/2018. An excavation was carried out on a site consisting of two small pits and a small charcoal-rich deposit in the townland of Kilbane in November 2002. These features were uncovered during monitoring by Tracy Collins of topsoil-stripping along the line of a drainage wayleave in this area (No. 1183 above, 02E1615). The two pits were 100m apart, and the small deposit was 7m to the north-east of the southern pit. All of these features were uncovered on the surface of the boulder clay. The northern pit was subrectangular, measuring 1m by 0.7m, and was 0.1m deep. The boulder clay at the sides and base of the pit was oxidised to a bright red, indicating that it was associated with in situ burning. The black, charcoal-rich fill contained a few tiny fragments of burnt bone but no artefacts. The southern pit appeared to have been truncated; it was 0.3m in diameter and 0.05m deep. The charcoal-rich fill contained a number of small fragments of metal slag, but there was no evidence of in situ burning, and the feature contained no artefacts. The shallow deposit was 0.3m in diameter and 0.02m deep and consisted of a black, charcoal-rich soil, which may form the remains of the basal part of a truncated pit feature. The forthcoming identification and dating of the charcoal and burnt bone samples recovered from these features will allow a fuller interpretation of their date and function. See attached Google Earth orthoimage. Compiled by: Alison McQueen and Vera Rahilly Date of upload: 22 June 2020