County - Down

Location - Drumkeeragh td (1mile E.of Slieve Croob) J3346

Date of discovery – 1783

Description
The body of a female of unknown age was found beneath a bog only about 1 acre in extent, at a depth of 41/2 feet after 5 feet had already been cut off. It was actually lying in gravel, aligned E-W, in what was most probably a grave marked only by stones about 18 inches square at each end. The bones were re-interred nearby in the bog. The best of clothing, which appears to have been extensive in quantity, was taken off by peasants for re-use, though much had been damaged by farmyard animals and children. Lady Moria considered the burial to have been a famine victim of Elizabethan date, but she was anxious to inquire further into the nature of the clothing its material and manufacture. She went to considerable trouble to have fragments recovered and examined them in great detail. It appears some of the cloth was copper impregnated, either through soil conditions, or through proximity to a copper or bronze artefact. The finds included what appears to have been a shroud, a cloak, some form of dress, possibly in a plaid pattern, and hair ornaments together with two plaits of hair. Lady Moria’s conjection as to the date (one in remote antiquity) is difficult to uphold without a detailed reconsideration of the dating of the dress, which may have been Elizabethan, as she originally conjectured (Moria 1783). Though lost during the earlier part of the 19th century (Wilde 1857,326) the surviving finds later passed to the Royal Irish Academy Museum (Wilde 1864); Hensall 1951-2, 5; now National Museum of Ireland, R2028 (hair) R2029-2035 (cloth fragments).