Placeless Dead?: Finding Evidence for Children in the Irish Landscape

Approximately 1,400 children’s burial grounds (s. cillín / pl. cillíní) are recorded monuments within the Republic of Ireland. These are unconsecrated burial grounds generally used for the interment of stillborn or unbaptized infants and, upon occasion, for older children and certain categories of adults. The social and religious status of an unbaptized infant was compounded by fear, superstition, and folklore, which was directly reflected through the burial of the infant’s body; this was to be secreted away for nighttime burial within a cillín. A liminal location in the landscape was sought for cillíní, reflecting the lost, placeless nature of the unbaptized child’s soul. This essay examines the archaeological and historical origins of cillíní and the superstitions and folklore which surrounded their location and use. It is arguable that these dead are not in fact placeless, but contained and held in perpetuity by the character of the landscape, lying in restless wait to be absolved and freed.