Known locally as ‘Ard Kelly’, this unremarkable patch of cultivated land once served as a burial ground specifically for children. Whilst you won’t find any markers or monuments today, and the site doesn’t even appear on the 3rd edition Ordnance Survey 6-inch map, its significance remains etched in the collective memory of the area.

These types of children’s burial grounds, often called cillíní in Irish, were tragically common throughout Ireland. They typically served as resting places for unbaptised infants, stillborn babies, and young children who, according to Catholic doctrine of earlier centuries, couldn’t be buried in consecrated ground. The lack of physical markers at Ard Kelly speaks to the informal nature of these sites; they were often located on boundaries, in liminal spaces, or on unconsecrated land at the edges of communities.

The site’s documentation comes from the comprehensive Archaeological Survey of County Donegal, compiled by Brian Lacey and his team in 1983. This survey, which catalogued field antiquities from the Mesolithic period through to the 17th century, has preserved knowledge of countless sites like Ard Kelly that might otherwise have been lost to time and agricultural development. Today, the rise continues to be farmed, its sorrowful purpose known only through local tradition and archaeological records.