And The Mountain Shall Crumble to The Sea…

Getting there…

rosion of the sandy cliffs below Bray Head is nothing new…

Severe weather in early 1881 revealed to a curious visitor an early cremation burial site.

Further erosion since means that all traces of this are long gone. However the description of the site remains.

From “The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland” (1882)

“On Sepulchral Remains at Rathdown, Co.Wicklow. By Gerrard A. Kinahan, Esq.

Rathdown Castle

(A Paper read before the Institute on June 14th, 1881.)

While examining the drift composing the cliffs to the north of Greystones, I observed that some of the fine sand in some places appeared to have been burnt or baked; the exposures having been caused by falls of the cliff after the severe frosts of January, 1881.

On closer examination it occurred to me that they might be the remains of some prehistoric interments, as in one of them there were fragments of burnt bones and stones, also some rude pottery.
As represented in the accompanying section the surface of the ground is quite level; and probably has been tilled for ages, although for some years back lying idle. The soil is from 9 to 12 inches deep, overlying gravel and in places fine sand. Where these remains occur in the townland of Rathdown, the subsoil is a fine yellow sand, and in it there is a hollow.
The hollow as seen in section on the face of the cliff is 7 feet long, its termination being well marked to the south, while to the north it gradually tails out. The bottom of this hollow is bounded by fine sand which is baked for a depth of about 3 inches; resting on this is a layer of black earth, about 6 inches thick, containing fragments of burnt bones, charcoal, and rude pottery; the pottery evidently resting above the bones, which formed a layer about 2 inches thick; above and surrounding the pottery, in many cases resting on fragments of it, were numerous angular burnt stones, generally small, but nothing like a flag was observed.

Cliff Walk gets a little dangerous 11st Jan 1996

From the position of these, it may be suggested that originally they covered the urns, and that the
breaking up of the latter was due to their superincumbent weight. The urns seemed to be two in number, that to the south being red, most pieces of it occurring between the 2 and 3 feet vertical lines, the other was less burnt, and was certainly inverted, although fewer fragments of it were obtained.

The bones, in very small fragments, were all outside the urns. Such remains as could be collected were submitted to Dr. Frazer, M.R.I.A., who has favoured me with the following remarks:—

There are fragments of burned bones much acted on by fire, and curled from the heat, but apparently only parts of one skeleton, and even this fragmentary. A few of the bones can be recognised; thus there is a small fragment of the frontal bone, a few fragments probably of the thigh bone, and also some of the tibia and fibula, and there is a fragment of the lower end of the radius; from the latter bone it would be probably fair to conclude the person was an adult, and from the narrow edge of the tibial fragments the bone was probably platycnemic [an abnormal shaping of the shinbones – GA].
The urns are made of rough clay, with fragments of mica perceptible, and the workmanship agrees in all respects with many already described. There appear to be fragments of two urns; so I would conclude from slight differences in the slopes of two pieces, but I have so few of the fragments and parts that I have not been able very satisfactorily to reconstruct the urns.
About 10 yards north of this interment there was another small hollow in the drift, the bottom of which was also baked, but no remains of any kind were obtained from it, except a few small fragments of charcoal; probably the greater portion had been carried away with the denudation of the cliff.”

Gerrard Kinahan, who wrote the article, was a geologist. His father, George Henry Kinahan, was also a leading geologist and Deputy Surveyor for the Geological Survey of Ireland. Gerrard wrote several papers about the geology of Rathdown. His untimely end is recorded in the following:

Popular Science Monthly June 1886

OBITUARY NOTES.
Mr. Gerrard KINAHAN, son of the Irish geologist, who had connected himself with an African trading company, was killed by a poisoned arrow in a fight
with the native tribes at Anyappa (In Nigeria – GA), May 23d. His training as a chemist and geologist at scientific schools in Dublin and London had thoroughly qualified him for scientific research, and there is no doubt that had he lived he would have added much of value to our knowledge of
Africa.”

Coincidentally, Gerrard Kinahan was named for his mother’s family. Harriette Gerrard (1825-1892) was the daughter of Samuel Gerrard of Dublin. She married George Henry Kinahan in 1855. They are buried in the Holy Trinity churchyard in Castlemacadam, Avoca.

More of Gary Acheson’s Blasts From The Past here.