MARINE BIOLOGICAL STATION AT PORT ERUST. 



123 



18ft. by loft., the walls being about 2ft. 6in. thick, their 

 inside height 4ft. from the floor, outside 3ft. 



Burial, in the ancient cemeteries round these keeils, 

 was in " lintel-graves," about 3ft. deep and 2ft. wide, dug 

 east and west, and lined with small flagstones to the height 

 of 15 inches. The corpse was wrapt in a mort-cloth, and 

 the top closed in by similar, sometimes rather larger flags. 

 No implements or relics have been found in any of these 

 graves. Sometimes, says Oliver, two and even three bodies 

 rest in the same grave. " When this is the case they will 

 be found to lie on their sides, with the lower extremities 

 semi-flexed. In consequence of this the grave is smaller, 



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Fig. 26. Treen'.at Ballakilley. 

 having the appearance of a child's burial. Three or four 

 such graves may be seen in section at Kilkellane, Lonan, 

 where the electric tram road has cut through a burial 

 ground. Sometimes such early cemeteries are found 

 where now there is no trace or tradition remaining of the 

 keeil which must once have stood there, as at the Flagstaff 

 above Grlen Wyllin, Michael, and by the old Castletown 

 road from Foxdale, on Barrule Farm. Occasionally these 

 lintel-graves are met with even in the Parish Church- 

 yards, having continued in use until the commencement 

 of the seventeenth century. 



