Children's burial ground, Mossyglen, Co. Donegal

Children’s burial ground, Mossyglen, Co. Donegal

On sloping ground overlooking the scenic waters of Kinnagoe Bay in County Donegal lies a poignant reminder of Ireland's past; a children's burial ground at Mossyglen.

Children's burial ground, Mossyglen, Co. Donegal

This small, oval mound measures roughly 10 metres east to west and 8 metres north to south, rising about 1.5 metres on its southern side. The raised earthwork contains a slight depression at its centre, suggesting its long use as a cillín, one of the unconsecrated burial grounds where unbaptised infants were laid to rest during centuries when Catholic doctrine denied them churchyard burial.

The site shows signs of recent maintenance, with fuschia bushes having been cleared by snapping them at the base rather than uprooting them entirely, a method that helps preserve the integrity of the ground surface. Several boulders are visible across the mound, likely serving as simple grave markers for the tiny souls buried here. While there’s been some minor disturbance to the western slope, the burial ground remains in remarkably good condition, its surface largely undisturbed by the passage of time.



These lonely burial grounds, scattered across the Irish landscape, tell a sorrowful chapter in the country’s social and religious history. Parents who lost infants before baptism would often carry out secret burials in these liminal spaces; places set apart from consecrated ground yet still treated with reverence and care. The Mossyglen site, with its commanding views across Kinnagoe Bay, would have offered grieving families a peaceful, if isolated, place to mourn their losses away from the strictures of church law.

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Lacy, B. with Cody, E., Cotter, C., Cuppage, J., Dunne, N., Hurley, V., O’Rahilly, C., Walsh, P. and Ó Nualláin, S. 1983 Archaeological Survey of County Donegal. A description of the field antiquities of the County from the Mesolithic Period to the 17th century A.D. Lifford. Donegal County Council.
Mossyglen, Co. Donegal
55.26089714, -7.01508174
55.26089714,-7.01508174
Mossyglen 
Burial Grounds 

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