The children’s burial ground in Drumanure, Co. Clare

Cillíní, burial sites traditionally used for unbaptized infants and marginalized individuals, often survive in remote areas. One such little-known cillín is located in Drumanure in Co. Clare.

The burial practices associated with cillíní offer important insights into Ireland’s historical attitudes towards death and the afterlife. Traditionally, cillíní were understood to have served as burial sites for unbaptized and stillborn babies, who were denied interment in consecrated ground due to the Christian doctrine of Limbo Infantus.

The Irish word cillín (most commonly anglicized as killeen) comes from cill, a term used in the early medieval period to refer to a church or cell, combined with the diminutive suffix –ín. Because churches had adjacent cemeteries, the term cill acquired a broader meaning and was applied to places of burial as well.

A cillín located in the townland of Drumanure, near the villages of Kilmaley and Kilnamona in west Clare, is marked on early Ordnance Survey (OS) maps as Killanniv. This name derives from the Irish Cill na Leanbh, with na leanbh referring to babies or children. An OS letter from 1839 also records the presence of “a small burying ground in the townland of Dromanure, called Cill-Leanbh or burial place of the children”.  An account in the late 1930s Schools’ Folklore Collection for Kilmaley school states that there is “a ‘Cill’ in the townland of Drimenure where unbaptized children were buried”.

Given the country’s high historical infant mortality rates, cillíní are relatively numerous in rural Ireland, with approximately 1,700 recorded nationwide. Many more likely remain dotted throughout the countryside. Typically, cillíní are found in liminal, clandestine locations, often near natural or manmade boundaries such as rivers, lakes and crossroads. They are frequently located in or near pre-existing archaeological sites, such as ringforts, but even more commonly at abandoned early medieval church sites.

Depending on where it is located in Ireland, a cillín cemetery can also be referred to by the Irish terms ceallúnach, cealltrach or caldragh and as a children’s burial ground in English. However, these sites were also used for the burial of social outcasts, including unrepentant convicts, strangers, beggars, shipwrecked sailors, suicides, unchurched women and even victims of the Famine.

Another account in the Kilmaley school folklore collection offers an interesting origin story for the cillín in Drumanure. It was collected from Pat Hanrahan, who lived in the neighbouring townland of Drumatehy. According to his account, a battle took place in Drumanure between a party of Cromwellian soldiers and the inhabitants of Kilmaley, Inch and Connolly, resulting in the deaths of many soldiers and ending with their surrender. Hanrahan adds:

“On another hill or druim in the vicinity to the south of Druim an Áir the bodies of the slain were interred and the place is today a collection of nameless flags, and is used as a burial ground for unbaptised children. it is known as Drimanure, Druim an Uir or the hill of the graveyard.”

Relatively few cillín cemeteries have been comprehensively dated, and those that have are often found to be much older than initially thought. Some have returned radiocarbon dates indicating use commencing in the medieval period, and many continued in use until the early or mid-20th century.

Excavations of the graves often reveal a surprising level of care. Some contain carefully chosen deposits, such as white quartz pebbles, as recovered from the cillín graves on the island of Iniscealtra in east Clare.

A small, sub-circular enclosure surrounds the cillín in Drumanure. The townland name in Irish, Droim an Iúir, meaning the ridge of the yew tree, is notable because yew trees were traditionally planted in Irish cemeteries.

The graves at Drumanure are marked with small, rough stones set either upright or lying flat. According to local knowledge, the last burial took place here in about 1930 or slightly earlier.

Of particular interest in Drumanure is a large, rectangular slab inscribed with a cross, now barely visible. This slab differs significantly from the other gravemarkers at the site and local lore has it that it marks a priest’s grave. If this is true, it might indicate that Mass was celebrated here during penal times or it could suggest that this was the site of a medieval church. Mass is still occasionally celebrated at this site.

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