Marked on the second edition of the Ordnance Survey 6-inch map, this site once served as a dedicated resting place for unbaptised infants and young children, a practice deeply rooted in Irish Catholic tradition. Today, no visible traces remain above ground, the site having been reclaimed by the surrounding grassland that characterises this part of the county.

These burial grounds, found throughout Ireland, tell a complex story of religious belief and social customs. In times when Catholic doctrine held that unbaptised souls could not enter consecrated ground, communities created separate spaces for their youngest members who died before receiving the sacrament. The caldragh at Magheracorran would have been a place of quiet grief, where families could lay their children to rest with dignity, even if church law prevented them from using the main cemetery.

The site’s documentation comes from the comprehensive Archaeological Survey of County Donegal, compiled in 1983 by Brian Lacey and his team of archaeologists. Their work, which catalogued field antiquities from the Mesolithic period through to the 17th century, ensures that even as physical evidence disappears beneath the earth, the memory and significance of places like this children’s burial ground remain part of the historical record.