Measuring eight metres in diameter, this solemn space is defined by an earthen bank that rises up to three-quarters of a metre high, creating a distinct boundary between the burial ground and the surrounding landscape. The interior tells its own story through the scattered stones that cover the ground, silent markers of the small lives once laid to rest here.

These burial grounds, known in Irish as cillíní, served a specific and heartbreaking purpose in Ireland’s past. They were typically reserved for unbaptised infants, stillborn children, and sometimes those deemed unworthy of consecrated ground by the Catholic Church. The practice reflects a time when strict religious doctrine governed even the geography of grief, relegating certain deaths to unconsecrated spaces on the margins of communities; often in liminal places like townland boundaries, ringforts, or isolated fields.

The Dunaff site was documented as part of the Archaeological Survey of County Donegal, a comprehensive catalogue of the county’s field antiquities spanning from the Mesolithic Period to the 17th century. Compiled by Brian Lacey and his team in 1983, the survey captured details of hundreds of archaeological features across the county, preserving knowledge of sites like this children’s burial ground that might otherwise fade from memory. Today, these quiet enclosures stand as poignant reminders of how communities navigated loss within the constraints of religious and social customs that have long since changed.