These places, known in Irish as cillíní (singular: cillín), were used for centuries to inter unbaptised infants and others considered ineligible for burial in consecrated ground under Catholic Church law. They occupy a liminal space, literally and symbolically, often sited at townland boundaries, beside ancient ringforts, along the margins of bogs, or within the ruins of early medieval enclosures. Their locations were deliberate choices by communities who, excluded from the official rites of burial, still sought to place their children somewhere with some claim to sanctity or antiquity.