Burial ground, Kilkee, Co. Clare
Co. Clare |
Burial Grounds
On the Atlantic edge of County Clare, Kilkee is best known for its horseshoe bay and the dramatic Duggerna Rocks that shelter it from the open ocean.
Less remarked upon is the fact that somewhere within or near the town lies a burial ground of sufficient antiquity and archaeological significance to have earned a formal monument record, a detail that sits quietly beneath the surface of a place most visitors associate with seaside holidays rather than the long layering of human occupation.
Kilkee and the surrounding Moyarta barony have a deep history of early Christian and pre-Christian activity, and burial grounds in this part of Clare range from medieval parish cemeteries to far older enclosure cemeteries associated with early monastic settlements. Without more detailed documentation currently to hand, it is not possible to say whether this particular site is a post-medieval parish ground, an early Christian cillin of the kind used for the unconsecrated burial of unbaptised infants, or something older still. What the monument record confirms is that it has been identified and classified, which places it within a tradition of funerary landscape that runs deep along the west Clare coastline.