County: Kildare Site name: KILL (Site 16)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: KD026-005---- Licence number: 03E0184
Author: Thaddeus C. Breen, for Valerie J. Keeley Ltd.
Site type: Children’s burial ground
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 664481m, N 709416m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.131374, -7.036451
The townland of Kill, near Monasterevin, consists of a ridge rising above the boggy land which stretches north-east towards Kildare. A small area at the top of the ridge was used as a children’s burial ground until the 1940s. The area affected by the M7 Heath–Mayfield Motorway Scheme is considerable, as the Nurney road is being diverted up onto the ridge to cross the motorway at this point. A geophysical survey was carried out first and this indicated that a number of linear features were present. Some of these were modern pipes, but a number of them appeared to be infilled ditches. Test-trenches were dug through these and three ditches were found.
Feature 6 was a flat-bottomed ditch, 1.5m wide at the top and 0.8–0.92m deep, relative to the present ground level. It coincided with the line of a field fence removed in recent decades and probably of 18th/19th-century origin. It cut through two hearths, F14 and F15. Little remained of F15, but F14 was flat-bottomed and probably originally oval or subrectangular. The sides and base were reddened by burning and a layer of charcoal was present at the base. Above this were two layers of sandy silt containing occasional pieces of charcoal. It was at least 0.9m across and the maximum depth was 0.2m.
F8 was a shallow round-bottomed ditch extending across two fields, 1–1.4m wide and 0.73–0.78m deep, relative to the present ground level. There were two fills, both consisting of a light-coloured mixture of silt and sand. It ran parallel to the ridge in the boggy ground to the south-west and may have been a drain.
F11 ran parallel to the ridge on the north-eastern side, not quite at the bottom of the slope. It was 2.8m wide at the top, 2m wide at the base and 1.46m deep. There was a thin layer of gravel at the base, but the ditch appears to have been backfilled before much silting could occur. Two corroded iron objects and a sherd of post-medieval pottery were found. Along with some undoubtedly modern debris found when another section was opened during centre-line stripping, this suggests that it was a recent drain.
13 Wainsfort Crescent, Dublin 6W
