Cist in Kilgaroan

Cahill and Sikora (2011, 513-15) record that ‘in July 1956 a short cist containing an inhumation was discovered on a farm near Kilbeggan, Co. Westmeath, in the course of land reclamation work, when, large surface stones were being removed from the field. When one of these stones was lifted it was found to be covering a grave.329 The workmen had bored a hole through the middle of this stone, which was thought to be a large rock, in preparation for blasting it. During the drilling operations the stone was split through the centre and partly collapsed into the cavity underneath. The earth and stones in the upper level of the cist were removed, and when the bones were discovered the fill was replaced. The site was reported to the Gardaí, who informed the NMI. The site was investigated by Ellen Prendergast on 13 July 1956, and the human remains from the site were examined by Professor C.A. Erskine. The cist stones were examined by Mr Mark Cunningham of the Geological Survey of Ireland. This account is based on the reports written by Prendergast and Erskine. It lay at the summit of a natural rise in a field adjoining a roadway at an altitude of 60-90m above sea level. It was located some 800m north-west of that discovered one month later in the adjacent towland of Ardballymore (Cahill and Sikora 2011, 478-84). The grave consisted of a short cist, almost square in plan, with its longer axis aligned east-west. Internally it measured 0.6m long by 0.5m wide by 0.35m high. The cist composed of five main slabs, one each at the southern, eastern and northern sides, and thinner slabs placed parallel to each other at the western end. The slabs were supported externally by yellow clay and small stones, tightly packed against the external sides. The northern side slab was built up with smaller stones so that the capstone rested on a level plane. In the south-eastern corner of the cist a rounded stone had been placed touching the southern slat firmly jammed against the eastern slab along its flat surface. This stone measured 0.3m lot 0.2m wide and its maximum height from the floor of the cist was 0.25m. This was not a stone but, as far as could be ascertained, was the upper portion of a large outcropping rock the floor of the cist was formed of tightly compacted gravel around this. The capstone of the cist had been removed but was roughly reconstructed. It was approximately square in outline, a maximum length of 0.8m, maximum width of 0.7m and maximum thickness of 0.15m cist stones were all of a fine quartzose sandstone common to the area. The grave contained the unburnt remains of a child or possibly two children (1956:211) and no accompanying artefacts were found. Most of the bone had already been removed from the cist so that it was not possible to ascertain the precise position of the body. The human remains from this site have not been radiocarbon-dated. In the absence of associated artefacts, it is assumed to be early Bronze Age on the basis of its form'. Date of upload : 13 August 2012