What is recorded here

Kilmoon Quarry, County Clare, may be the exact site of a stone-lined cist discovered accidentally in 1934. Workmen digging a sandpit broke through flags and exposed bones before Gardaí arrived to find the grave practically demolished. The sudden violence of ordinary labour may have destroyed a family cemetery or an older Iron Age burial, leaving behind only a gap in the earth and a warning about how quickly memory can be erased.

Found by workmen digging in a sandpit in 1934, this cist was described in a contemporaneous Garda report (quoted in Raftery 1941, 305; see also O'Brien 1984 and the 'Mapping Death' website, mappingdeathdb.ie) as what appeared to be a human grave (L c. 2.4m; Wth c. 1.1; D c. 0.6m), lined and covered with stone flags. Teeth and bones were found nearby. The grave was 'practically demolished' by the time the Gardaí arrived. Bones, teeth and other finds were said to be unearthed at the site almost every day. Raftery (ibid.) concluded that this was a long stone cist of the Early Iron Age. O'Brien (1984) proposed that it was part of a familial cemetery dating to the 5th-8th centuries. The precise location of this burial is unknown. It may be at Kilmoon Quarry (ITM 514849, 699613) as that is the local name cited on the Mapping Death website. Compiled by: Mary Tunney and Conn Herriott Date of upload: 21 December 2022 O'Brien, E. 1984 Late prehistoric-early historic Ireland: the burial evidence reviewed. Unpublished MPhil. thesis, National University of Ireland.

Slab-lined cist, likely dating to the Early Christian or Early Medieval period. Its discovery provides insight into burial practices in the Lisdoonvarna area, though limited contextual information restricts broader archaeological significance.

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